Fallout: Chasing Hokage
by catthegreat
Summary: The great ninja war is over, and Sasuke has been captured. Naruto's dream to become Hokage is within reach, but some people don't want him to acheive it. In the fallout from the war, the two ninjas are forced to face each other once more and pick up the pieces of the lives they once had.
1. Of Darkness and Ramen

_May 1, 2013: Fixed a small error in Naruto's perspective._

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Darkness surrounded him. Sasuke figured that was probably due to the blindfold he was wearing. It tugged his hair painfully in the back. He needed to fix it. Problem was, the damn chains around his wrists wouldn't let him lift his arm high enough to touch them. He grit his teeth in anger. It was annoying.

"Sasuke-kun?"

And speaking of annoying…

"What? Come down to gloat a bit more, Sakura?" He stood up and walked in the direction of her voice. He wanted her to see he wasn't afraid of her, despite everything.

"I am not _gloating_, Sasuke." She sounded irritated, offended, and condescending all at the same time.

"Dropped the kun I see. Good. Your act wasn't fooling anyone."

"I wasn't trying to fool people. There was no act. I was just trying to exhibit some courtesy, which you apparently –"

"Che. What do you want?" He stepped closer towards her voice, the chains around his ankles rattling around him. "And what are you doing without Kakashi anyways? He's not here to save you this time."

**BANG.**

Sasuke felt himself hit the bars of the cell. He tried to move his head, but couldn't; Sakura's hand was against the back of his neck, holding him there. He was truly pinned.

"Listen, _Sasuke-kun_," Sakura hissed, "the only reason I didn't kill you back there is because a _certain someone_ wanted you alive. But if you keep tempting me, I will kill you instantly."

He knew he shouldn't taunt her. He was in a terrible position for that.

"You sure sound brave when I still have my Sharingan covered don't you?"

_Dammit. I must be an idiot._

In one fell swoop, the blindfold was flung off his face. He blinked at the sudden onslaught of light; there wasn't much, but he had been in the dark for so long. When his vision returned to him, he found his face was not far from the pink haired girl's. And she looked pissed.

"If I sense any change in your eyes, I'll snap your neck instantly." She tightened her grip as if to prove her point.

He believed her. "You still haven't answered my question. **Why are you here**?"

She loosened her hold a bit.

"To warn you."

He raised his eyebrows. "Warn me about what?"

She said nothing for a moment. He was about to make another snide remark, but something in her eyes stopped him. So instead he waited.

"I…I know that _he_ wanted you to stay alive. Of course it's only because he saved the village the leaders even listen to him. And he hasn't even been here to see you yet…" She averted her eyes.

Sasuke was surprised by the sudden hesitation in her voice. He voiced his opinion. "That is not a warning."

Her gaze sharply returned to him. "If you hurt a single hair on Naruto's head, I will kill you in the most painful way possible."

He flinched at the name. "Where is the Hokage-to-be anyways?" He hoped she wouldn't notice his attempt to avoid mentioning the ninja's name.

"_Naruto_ is waiting for the vote to be complete, as I've heard some of the elders think _Naruto_ is too young and hotheaded to be Hokage."

She'd noticed.

"Fascinating. Well if that's all you had to say to me…"

"You have my warning. Heed it." And with that, she threw him back a ways before walking towards the stairs leading up to the outside. Just as she got there, she stopped. "I wouldn't hold your breath thinking he'll come see you, though; he's ashamed of what you've become." A wave of her arm, and she departed.

He sunk to the ground, trying to control all the thoughts swirling around in his mind. Sakura was a completely different person from the girl who'd once begged him to stay behind in the village. Even from the time she'd first tried to kill him and couldn't, she'd changed. She'd somehow transformed herself into a confident, strong, loyal woman. It was terrifying.

But the more terrifying thing was his reaction to the subject of the blonde ninja. Even the mere _mention_ of his name sent Sasuke into a rollercoaster of strange emotions. Despite his sarcastic tone of voice in response to Sakura's explanation of where he was, he did find it fascinating. After all _he'd_ done for the village – he couldn't even bring himself to think the other's name in his mind – they still weren't willing to simply acknowledge him.

That bothered Sasuke.

He idly wondered who the elders would pick as their new leader if not the fox's jinchurikki. _Probably Kakashi_, he thought. _Nobody else is as powerful and has the same amount of experience._

But the thought Sasuke was trying to avoid, was the memory of Sakura's parting words. _He's ashamed of what you've become_. Was he? Is that why he hadn't come? The raven haired ninja buried his head in his hands at the thought. _I didn't want to see him anyways_, he tried to convince himself.

He ignored the salt water dripping through his fingers.

* * *

Naruto tapped his feet impatiently. He did not enjoy waiting. Based on where the sun was now, relative to when he first sat at this bench, he'd been sitting for several hours. _I could've eaten two bowls of ramen by now_, the blonde thought with mild irritation. As if on cue, his stomach rumbled loudly.

"Dammit. I'm done waiting," he grumbled, before standing to leave. He began walking to Ichiraku, when he spotted a familiar mop of pink hair.

"Sakura-chan!" He ran towards her.

"Naruto? What are you doing over here? I thought you were waiting to hear what the elders had to say?"

He shrugged. "They're taking too long. I'm going to eat. Hey, you want to get dinner with me?"

She nodded, and together they walked to get ramen.

"So what've you been up to all day, Sakura-chan?" He put his arms behind his head as he talked, just like the old days.

"Oh, uh, nothing much. Just running errands for the hospital. Nothing special." Something about Sakura's tone made Naruto feel as though she were keeping something from him. He decided to just let it go; if it were important, she would tell him.

They walked the rest of the way in silence. As soon as they reached their destination, Naruto's stomach growled again. It seemed to him as if it were making a point that it needed to eat soon, or risk devouring the girl sitting next to him. With that in mind, he ordered two bowls. "No wait, make that three. I'm hungry and still growing dattebayo!" Teuchi laughed at that and set to work cooking his three bowls and Sakura's one.

It was awkwardly silent between them for a moment.

"Naruto!" The familiar voice of Kiba drifted in from outside. He turned to see, not only the dog boy, but Shino and Hinata as well.

"Yo, Kiba, what's up?"

"The elders need to see you right away," the other responded.

"What? But I'm hungry! Can't I eat first?"

"It seemed urgent. I'd go now. Your food isn't even done yet."

He got up. "Fine, fine. I'll go." He turned back to his eating partner. "I'm sorry Sakura-chan; we'll finish our date later." And before she could respond he ran out.

"Don't eat my ramen, Kiba!" He shouted over his shoulder, running towards the Hokage residence.

It didn't surprise Naruto to see Kakashi sitting in front of the building. What did surprise him was his former team leader's lack of book to read.

"Naruto, about time. They're waiting for us in there."

"Us?"

"Mhm. Seems they wish to speak with us both."

They walked in together. It was a good thing Kakshi was leading the way; Naruto had no idea which room they would be in. The older man did, however, and in no time they were standing in front of a bunch of old people Naruto couldn't recall having ever seen in his life. He stood before them and awaited their verdict. He fully expected to be immediately crowned – he had no idea what it was called, come to think of it – and be back in time to eat two still steaming hot bowls of ramen with Sakura-chan. _Let's get this over with, old people._

"We cannot, in good faith, name you as the sixth Hokage," an old woman started.

_Wait. What?_

"No. It would've been the seventh Hokage. Danzo was sixth," an old man chimed in.

_Hold on._

"Danzo was never made official, and Tsunade-hime was not dead at the time," a second old man chimed in.

_But. But what?_

"That's not really important, is it?" Kakashi interrupted their debate.

_Right. That isn't important._

"Why can't Naruto be Hokage?" The white haired ninja had an edge in his voice as he said this, as if to say there were no question in his mind Naruto should be Hokage. Immediately.

"We have never before, not since the first and second, had a ninja ranked so low as our leader." The woman spoke again.

_Wait. Is the reason really because of that damn Chunnin exam all those years ago?! Are you kidding me right now?! They couldn't even finish the test! A __**war**__ happened!_

"Naruto has proven time and time again that he is more powerful than any other ninja in this village. He was able to defeat enemies even I couldn't, and you're saying you would rather have me as Hokage?"

_Have Kakashi as Hokage? Is that why he's here?_

"It is not a question of the boy's strength; we cannot have someone who has never proven himself as a leader lead the entire village."

_Never proven myself as a leader?_

"I'm begging you all to reconsider."

"I'm sorry, but if I remember correctly, he barely passed the test to become a Genin. He cannot be Hokage."

_…What. The. Fuck._

"So you're saying if he can pass the Chunnin exam, he'll have a shot?"

"Well, not exactly."

"Then what's the problem?"

"It's not simply the Chunnin exam. He would need to be ranked as high as a Jounin in order to be considered a worthy leader."

_A Jounin? That level takes years to obtain! How do they even test for that?!_

"It's settled then. The Chunnin exam was cancelled due to the war. It was time for us to reschedule it anyways. Naruto will participate in the exam. After he passes, he will move on to the Jounin test. In the meantime you will all act as the leaders."

The old people looked troubled at Kakashi hijacking the meeting they were supposed to be in charge of. The old man who had first spoken up in the debate looked particularly troubled.

"Kakashi-san, we were hoping _you_ would be willing to become the new Hokage." Most of the others nodded in agreement.

"I am flattered to be considered as a candidate, however I'm not interested. I hope you'll consider what I had to say on the matter and give Naruto a chance. If he isn't able to pass the tests, then I will reconsider your offer."

They turned and chattered amongst themselves for a bit. Naruto's heart was beating painfully fast in his chest. He didn't even notice when the white-haired man shot him an encouraging eye-smile.

"We agree to your conditions. If he cannot pass the tests he faces, then he will no longer be in the running to become Hokage, and you will be the prime candidate." The woman was the one who spoke again.

"Thank you very much." Kakashi placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder and led him out of the room, and the building. The younger ninja's mind was whirring at an unreasonably fast speed, and he didn't notice they were no longer in the room until they were outside. He looked up in surprise; the sun had set and the stars were starting to come out. He suspected his ramen was cold.

It was silent for a moment.

"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei." He finally mumbled, staring back at the ground. He felt numb.

"Naruto." Something about the way Kakashi said his name caused the younger man to look up. "This isn't going to be easy for you. You may have gained the acknowledgement of everyone else, but they still only see you as the Kyuubi's Jinchurikki. They will make your tests as difficult as they can."

Naruto still had nothing to say.

"Knowing that, do you still wish to continue?"

He nodded. He had no words.

"Good." Kakashi eye-smiled again. "I believe you may have been taken away from your dinner. Am I right?"

Naruto's stomach could've been a damn clock, because it rumbled right at that moment. He grinned a little sheepishly at the sound.

"Go ahead and eat. I won't keep you."

Still silent, Naruto nodded and turned to leave.

"For the record," Kakashi said quieter, "I believe you can do it."

Naruto turned back, wanting to say something. But Kakashi was gone. _How does he do that? He's like a damn ninja._ Grinning stupidly at his internal joke and feeling noticeably more hopeful, Naruto made his way back to Ichiraku.

Chunnin exam, huh? He recalled the last one and felt the familiar pang of loss when he recalled the Sasuke from that time. Somehow, he felt, this time around wouldn't be as much fun without him.

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	2. Three's a Team

**Chapter 2**

They had to allow Naruto to take the Chunnin exam. They'd already agreed to it with Kaakshi. The problem was, they didn't want to.

"We could tell him he can't take the exam because his power is too great after studying under the great Jiarya."

"That would be the same as telling him he's already qualified enough to be Hokage."

"Well what would you tell him then?"

"That he can't take the test because of his age."

"We've never had an issue with that before."

"You are all acting like children," the old woman who spoke during Naruto and Kakashi's meeting before spoke up finally. "It's quite simple actually."

She paused for effect, waiting until all the other elders' eyes were on her.

"We tell him he can't take the test without a team."

The rest of them all erupted at that.

"Of course! All the ninja's preparing to become a Chunnin this time around are going with their teams."

"They must be in groups of three!"

"And even if there were any, it wouldn't matter. He would need to be in a team he could work well in."

"Sakura-san is already nearing her Jounin level, so she can't be a participant."

"This is brilliant."

"Send an alert to everyone, and make sure Naruto knows," the woman spoke one more time. "Naruto cannot participate without a full team."

* * *

Naruto woke up with a sneeze. He'd been having a strange dream. Somehow it reminded him of the past; he couldn't quite remember. He yawned. _Nevermind. If it were important, I'll remember it later._

He bounced out of bed and began dressing in his typical orange excitedly. He was training for something again. He finally had a concrete, definite goal. He hadn't had one of those since…since…_since Sasuke left_.

He froze at the thought. _Well that's depressing. And here I was having such a good day._ He mentally shook himself, before he finished dressing. He had to concentrate. Becoming Hokage was just within his reach.

He dashed out of the house, grabbing an apple for breakfast ("_you should eat more healthily Naruto"_ Sakura-chan had chastised) and ended up in his old training area.

"Yosh!" He exclaimed and got right to work.

Fifty rounds of push-ups, pull-ups, and ab work later, he started his run. Lee had told him running was the single most effective way to improve one's Taijutsu, and Naruto intended to have his body in tip-top shape before the test. The war had ended not long ago, but he'd already lazed around enough, he was short of breathe after a few laps. He decided it was time to work on some ninjutsu; the sun already indicated it was nearing mid-day.

He arrived back at his training area to find a figure standing there, waiting for him. "Naruto-niisan!" Konohamaru waved as he approached.

"Hey! What are you doing here?"

"I heard you were training for the Chunnin exam out here, and I wanted to share the news with you."

"News? What news?"

"The Elders have announced that only groups of three are allowed to participate," he held a crumpled paper before his face.

"Let me see that," Naruto snatched it away from him and began reading quickly, his eyes darting back and forth.

"As a reminder, only teams of three are allowed to participate in the exam. Team members may only consist of ninjas in the Genin level who have been approved by a Jounin to participate. It is unadvisable to try and find two other individuals with whom you have never worked – Konohamaru what is this shit?!"

Konohamaru just looked at him.

"They know I don't have a team, dattebayo!"

"I don't know what to tell you Naruto-niisan…"

"Wait!" The blonde's face suddenly lit up with excitement. "You're a Genin, right?"

"Yes, but –"

"We can be on a team together! Now we just need to find one more – "

"Sorry, Naruto-niisan, but I already have a team of three."

Naruto's face fell.

"Look, I'll, uh see you around ok? Good luck with the training!" And with that, the younger ninja ran off.

The desire to train was gone. Naruto just sunk to the ground, still holding the flyer. _Goddammit. They really are trying to make this impossible for me._ He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to keep the childish tears from falling. _This isn't fair._

_Life isn't fair Naruto_, Kurama's voice rang through his mind.

Naruto opened his eyes; they were in his mind, as they had been many times in the past. The difference was the lack of bars separating him and the fox.

_This is my _dream_, Kurama. Not just some kid stealing my ramen._

_Then what's stopping you from achieving it?_

_Did you not see what the flyer said? They need a group of three, and there are no groups left._

_So?_

_So it's impossible, dattebayo!_

_That's never stopped you before._

Naruto didn't respond.

_It was impossible for you to befriend me, impossible for anyone to defeat Madara or the ten tails, impossible to stop Pein from destroying Konoha…_

_I get it. I did those things. But what do I do for this?_

_Find two other Genin who you've worked with who are not considered Chunnin yet. Preferably two who you've worked with before._

_You sound like you have someone in mind._

_It would ruin the fun if you couldn't figure it out for yourself, Naruto. Look sharp, someone's coming along._

Naruto opened his eyes. True to the fox's word, someone kneeled before him. Far too close to him. With a yelp, he fell over.

"SAI! DO YOU REALLY FEEL THE NEED TO GET SO CLOSE TO ME ALL THE TIME?!" He exclaimed once he'd regained his breath.

The dark haired ninja just smiled his mysterious smile. "Hello, Naruto-kun."

"And don't call me Naruto-kun. It's creepy and weird."

"Then what should I call you?"

"Just call me Naruto." The blonde stood up and wiped the dirt off his back.

"Isn't dropping formalities the sign of being extremely close with someone?" The other stood up as well.

"Shut up and stop being so weird. What did you want anyways?"

"I heard you were training out here to take the Chunnin exam, and I decided to pop in and bring a snack. Sakura-chan said you probably weren't eating healthy." He held up a basket of food. "Shall we picnic, Naruto?" He smiled again.

"THAT MAKES IT SOUND LIKE A DATE!"

Moments later, they were eating rice balls under a tree. Naruto grabbed his fourth and chewed it thoughtfully.

"Something on your mind?" The sound of Sai's voice brought Naruto out of his thoughts.

"Hmm? Oh I suppose so." For a moment he considered not telling the other. "They told me I couldn't be Hokage unless I pass the Chunnin exam coming up. Problem is, you need a team of three and I don't have one."

"That does sound like a problem."

"Yeah. And Sakura-chan's already a Chunnin, and you're…what are you?"

"Hmm…" Sai looked away thinking. "I don't know for sure," he said after a moment. "I suppose I'm just a Genin as far as the official standings go. We didn't go through the same training at Root, but in order to be considered a real ninja of the village, we were required to be Genin. That was the only official test I believe I took."

"You're a Genin? That's great!" Naruto exclaimed suddenly, grabbing Sai's wrists and causing him to drop his rice.

"I – I suppose so…"

"Do you know what this means?"

Sai swallowed the last of his rice, but Naruto didn't give him a chance to answer.

"We can be on a team together! This is great! I bet you that's what the damn fox was talking about. Now we only need to find one other person!"

He finally released Sai's wrists and ran off jumping around and chanting "only one more" at the top of his lungs. Sai chuckled to himself at the strangeness of his friend.

He decided it was time to leave; Naruto looked like he was ready to go back to training. As he stood, Naruto made one of his Shadow Clones appear and the two of them danced around each other still chanting. Neither Naruto nor his clone noticed the dark haired ninja disappear back towards the village.

* * *

"Wake up, traitor. You have a visitor."

Sasuke opened his eyes to the sound of one of the guards' voices. He didn't particularly enjoy being woken from his slumber.

"Tell them I'm busy." He rolled over.

"Showing your back to the enemy is something that gets ninjas captured. Oh wait." A new voice entered.

"You're the one who took my place, correct? Sai, if I recall." He turned and sat up. The guard was gone.

"That's right." The newcomer smiled at him. It was a creepy smile, like he was hiding the desire to kill. Poorly.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Drop the pleasantries, Uchiha." The smile was gone.

"Such hostility. All I asked was why you were here."

The other just glared.

"Really, what is it with you people coming down here and threatening me? First it's Sakura, now it's you – "

"I haven't threatened you." The shorter haired ninja cut him off. The word _yet_ hung unspoken in the air between them.

"Then I'll ask again, what do you want?"

It was silent for a moment.

"I don't have time for this shit." Sasuke made as if to try and sleep again.

"Wait." The voice didn't reek of bad intentions this time. It was enough to cause Sasuke to stop and stay seated.

"I'm listening."

The glare returned to the other ninja's face.

"Rumor has it you're going to be called to speak with the Elders soon. They are going to decide what to do with you; whether it's worth it to let you keep living or not."

"Why are they deciding? Isn't that the Hokage's job?"

"I suppose it would be, if we had a Hokage."

"Why don't you have a Hokage?" Sasuke tried very hard to not let his real question show through.

Sai's eyebrow raised the tiniest bit.

"That's the problem. According to what I've heard, the Elders want Kakashi –" _I knew it! _"– but Kakashi said he would rather have Naruto be Hokage. The agreement they came to was that Naruto would have to pass the ninja tests if he wanted to become the new Hokage."

"What does that have to do with me?" He put more of an effort to sound apathetic to the subject than he ever had in the past.

"Everything."

"What?" This time he couldn't stop the curiosity from showing in his voice.

"In order to pass the Chunnin exam, you must be in a group of three. Since I was in Root, I am only officially a Genin, but Sakura-san passed the Chunnin exam several years ago. Everyone else eligible for the exam is already split into teams of three."

"This still doesn't relate to me."

"You are a Genin, are you not?"

It clicked. He was almost ashamed at how long it had taken. "Absolutely not."

"But you are, I read your file –"

"Yes, I'm a Genin. I meant I am _absolutely not_ taking the Chunnin exam with you."

"You're the last option. Not only are you the last ninja in need of a teammate, you were also Naruto's former team member. It's perfect!"

"Except I'm in prison. I'm a traitor remember? They aren't going to let me take some damn test."

"They will."

"No they won't! For the love of – if it weren't for that pink haired girl ripping it off my face I'd still be blindfolded! I'm in _chains_ for Pete's sake!" He shook his wrists to prove his point.

The other ninja waited patiently for Sasuke's tantrum to end.

"Are you quite finished?"

This time, it was the Uchiha's turn to glare.

"They will allow this and here's why. They don't want Naruto to be Hokage – no listen to me – but they know he could possibly find another loophole in the exam's rules. If they allow him to participate with _you_ as his teammate, there's the possibility you could try to escape or destroy Konoha or kill someone or something. And if that were to happen, not only would he not pass, nobody would _want_ him to be Hokage. Or at least that's how they probably see it."

Sasuke continued to glare. "I thought you liked him."

"I do."

Something hot and angry bubbled in the Uchiha's stomach. "Then why suggest this?"

"Because it's the best chance Naruto-kun has of becoming Hokage."

"And if I decide to kill someone or something?"

"I'll be with you the whole time. If something like that happens, I'll kill you without any hesitation." The shorter-haired ninja's voice hardened at this, contrasting strongly with the smile which appeared on his face.

"And why would I agree to this?"

"Because if you do this, you'd more than likely be pardoned. I'm sure Naruto-kun would let you move far, far away once he's Hokage."

The hot thing bubbled more.

"And if I decide to stay and remain a ninja?"

The smile slipped off Sai's face. "Then you're bound to face more hardships trying to do that than Naruto is now trying to realize his dream."

Sasuke nodded. He expected no less.

"Do we have a deal then?"

"You never made me an offer," the Uchiha smirked.

"You agree to be the third member of our team, not kill anyone or try to destroy Konoha, and I agree not to kill you. You will also never mention this conversation to anyone."

"Sounds like a rip-off to me."

"Either that, or stay locked down here until they decide to kill you. Do you really think Kakashi would be as forgiving as Naruto?"

He couldn't argue with that. "I agree to your conditions, but with one of my own."

"You are in no condition to make demands."

"You must answer one question."

"That's it? Fine. I'll answer your question. This never happened anyways."

Sasuke mustered up all his courage.

"Why has _he_ not come down to see me?"

"He?" The other was being impossible, Sasuke knew it.

"N-Naruto." He instantly hated himself for stammering and tried to cover it up. "Sakura came down to threaten me, and now here you are, bargaining with me, both of you on _his_ behalf."

"Hmm. That's true. I guess we have. Well I did promise you an answer, I suppose." He paused a moment. "The reason Naruto hasn't come down to visit you –"

"Time's up! Let's go, pretty boy!" The guards were back. And before he knew it, Sai was gone. He could've sworn the shorter-haired man had shot him a look of pity before he left, but it didn't matter. He still didn't have the answers.

"Hope you enjoyed your visit, traitor." The guard taunted, before disappearing up the stairs and slamming the door.

Sasuke laid back down and rolled over, once again alone in the darkness with his thoughts.

* * *

**AN: Sorry for the delayed update! It's nearing finals. In fact, I have HW due tomorrow that I've neglected because I was writing this instead. Love me.**

**To answer some questions people have asked (and some I'm anticipating):**

**You will eventually learn what happened to Tsunade. For the time being, it's best to assume she's just gone. All things will be revealed in time.**

**Yes, I've read ch. 627. In this version, Sasuke did NOT go willingly back to the Leaf. In fact, the way I have it planned out currently (it's possible it could change, I guess) he was captured. That doesn't necessarily mean he was still trying to destroy the Leaf though. **

**If you have any other questions or comments, feel free to PM me or write them in your review!**

**PLEASE review!**


	3. Let Me Beat You Like A Man

**Chapter 3**

"Absolutely not."

"Just hear me out, Kakashi-sensei."

"I said no, Sai, and that's final."

"What other choice do we have?"

"There's bound to be another way he can take the exam than using a condemned criminal."

"If Naruto doesn't take the exam this time around, he won't ever be Hokage. I guess you did want the position after all."

Kakashi gave Sai a look so poisonous it could've killed him, were the Sharingan involved. Sai still didn't budge. He kept his trademark smile pasted on his face. It had to work.

"What makes you think he'd even agree to this?"

"I had a talk with our little Uchiha. Not only did he agree to this, he also swore to not harm a soul or Konoha."

Kakashi raised his one good eye in slight surprise. "You talked to him?"

The younger ninja nodded.

"And he agreed to all that?"

He nodded again.

"Interesting. What about the Elders?"

"Play it to their advantage. Make it seem as if this will help them prevent Naruto from passing the exam."

"No matter what you say, this will make it extremely difficult for Naruto. He hasn't been to visit Sasuke at all."

"I thought he wasn't aware Sasuke was being detained?"

"No, he knows. He just chose not to go down and visit."

Sai was confused. "Why wouldn't he?"

"That's something only Naruto knows. Very well, if you can get the Elders to agree to this – and that's a big if, mind you – I'll agree to approve your team."

"Thank you Kakashi-sensei."

"But know this: you may have been in Root, but you'll still be hard pressed to control those two if push comes to shove. Anything that happens is now your responsibility. Can you handle that?"

Sai paused before answering. "If it means helping my best friend realize his dream, yes."

Kakashi nodded before leaving. "Good luck."

* * *

Sakura waited impatiently outside the door. She'd been summoned to deliver her daily report on the hospital, but now she was forced to wait. Normally, she was a patient person; she understood the current leaders were busy dealing with the new Hokage problem. After her confrontation with Sasuke the day before, however, she found herself irritated with everyone and everything.

How could anyone ever love that asshole? He was rude, cruel, he stabbed that Karin girl – who turned out to be one of Naruto's relatives even – and he had almost caused Sakura to lose her best friend when they were little over a stupid love rivalry. He really was the worst.

He hands clenched at her sides when she remembered his voice, how he sounded so calm amidst her threats. Even after all these years, he still underestimated her. Sure, she was nowhere near the level Naruto was, but that didn't stop the fact _she_ was the one who captured the stubborn Uchiha. _She_ was the one who drug him back to Konoha when nobody else could. She deserved more respect from the prisoner.

Sakura was still fuming over the lack of respect the former object of her affections had towards her, when the door opened.

"Sakura-chan?" She looked up.

"Sai? Hey, what are you doing here?"

"Oh nothing, just speaking with the Elders about the upcoming exam." He smiled sheepishly.

"I forgot that you were only a Genin! You're taking the test with Naruto, then?"

"Yeah."

"I heard you need a team of three, just like when we took it the first time. Have you guys found your third?"

"Yeah…" He turned his head, a guilty look on his face, the smile no longer there.

Sakura paused, unsure what to say. "Well that's great! I was seriously getting sick of Naruto wailing about how he couldn't take it with me and begging me to find a disguise." The memory of him suggesting she disguise herself as a boy from the Sand brought a smile to her face. Naruto would always be Naruto.

Sai smirked slightly, as if sensing her thoughts. "As amusing as that would've been, I'm afraid we are no longer in need of your services."

And just like that, a tick appeared above her eye, and the scowl returned.

"Who is this new teammate you've replaced me with?" She asked, her annoyance clear.

"I'm not sure I can say just yet; the council still needs to speak with him about it."

"With who-?"

"See ya, Sakura-chan!" And with that he was gone. Sakura shook her head. She was bound to find out soon enough. She stepped into the room, ready to deliver her report.

* * *

"Why do I need to go speak with them _again_?" The blonde whined over his second bowl of ramen. Outside the shop, the sun was beginning to set, causing an interesting line of rainbows to appear on the table where the curtains split.

"It's about the third member of our team for the exams."

He sat up straight at that. "You found a third teammate?"

Sai just nodded, smiling his strange smile.

"Who?"

"That's what they need to speak to you about."

"You make no sense, man." Naruto went back to eating his ramen.

"Let's just say I've been sworn to secrecy until everything's been approved."

"Ntbffyngitch," the fox ninja responded, not bothering to stop eating.

"Naruto-kun, if you feel the need to speak like a barbarian, the least you could do is not spit up all over me."

The ninja in question swallowed. "I am not a _barbarian_, perv! And stop adding kun to the end of my name!"

"So you do wish to be more intimate with me?"

"No! I just think it sounds creepy!"

Sai ignored his outburst. "I suppose eating together like this does make it a date." He stealthily moved away as Naruto exploded.

"THIS IS NOT A DATE YOU CREEPY PERV! AND GIVE ME BACK MY RAMEN!"

"Don't shout, honey, people are staring."

"BECAUSE YOU'RE BEING WEIRD!"

Sai's grin turned wicked. "Is it weird to share food with someone you're so _intimate_ with Na-ru-to?" He pronounced the blonde's name slowly, one syllable at a time.

With a roar, the blonde in question through his stool aside and made to punch Sai. The pale ninja dodged the punch by slipping nimbly out the curtain. It took Naruto a moment to figure out what happened before he burst out after his teammate. By the time he was outside, Sai was already running away.

Naruto cursed and charged after him. "GET BACK HERE AND LET ME BEAT YOU UP LIKE A MAN!"

The fox received an ink lion to the chest as a response. A flick of his kunai and it dissolved around him, leaving stains on his hands and shirt. _Perv wants to play dirty, eh? I can play dirty too dattebayo!_ He quickly made two Kage Bunshin, one ran down the alley to his left. The other ran forward, then turned down the alley to the right. The plan was to head off Sai. The original kept going straight.

A few moments later, the knowledge of where Sai was, and that one of the clones had him cornered appeared in his brain. Sending two was smart. He smirked to himself; he was getting better at this planning ahead thing. Shikamaru would be proud.

He skidded around the corner, and arrived in the place that had just appeared in his mind to see his clone had Sai sufficiently restrained; his arms pinned behind his back. He slowed his approach, fully grinning now.

"Have we learned our lesson about stealing other people's ramen from them?"

Sai stopped struggling against the second Naruto. He instantly flashed the most sadistic smile the blonde had ever seen on his face.

"Even if there are two of you, it won't make your dick any bigger."

"GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Naruto didn't even manage to use real words as he ran at the smaller man. He knocked him over, causing his clone to vanish with a puff of smoke. When the smoke cleared a second later, the blonde was straddling the dark-haired man, fist raised to strike.

"As entertaining as it would be to watch you two beat the daylights out of each other, I'm afraid I need to stop you," a bored voice came from over Naruto's shoulder.

He turned to see Kakashi, book returned to hand, not particularly interested in the scene unfolding before him.

"But Kakashi-sensei, he insulted my –"

Kakashi shut his book with a snap. "The Elders need to speak with you again, Naruto. Something I believe _you_" he looked pointedly at Sai "were supposed to take care of."

Sai had the good grace to stop smiling.

"But I was in the middle of my dinner!"

Kakashi looked around, his eyebrow cocked in amusement. "I don't think this is Ichiraku. Unless you were eating something else?"

Sai snickered at the suggestive tone. Naruto, on the other hand, turned beet red and started spluttering something unintelligible. It worked, however, as the blonde stood up and started following the white haired man. Sai followed.

"Go home, perv."

"I'm a part of your team, dickless, or have you forgotten?"

"Enough with the nicknames you two. Come on." Kakashi interrupted whatever comeback Naruto was about to come up with.

They walked in silence the rest of the way. Once they reached the door, Kakashi knocked.

"Come in."

The older man opened the door and walked in, followed by the two younger ninjas, who were two busy making faces at each other to notice the fourth figure already standing in the room.

"Naruto." The sound of that damn old woman's voice broke Naruto's daze.

"Yes, ma'am." He stood very straight, and looked directly at her. No way would they find some other reason for him to not be Hokage.

"You want to take the Chunnin exam, correct?"

"Yes ma'am," he repeated.

"And you are aware you need a full team of three in order to participate?"

"Sai said we –"

"You will take any third member to be your teammate?"

"I thought we already –"

"Yes or no, Naruto."

"It's just that Sai found –"

"Yes or no," she repeated firmly.

"…yes," he grumbled finally.

"Regardless of the consequences?"

"Consequences? What are you talking about?"

"Do you want to become Hokage?"

"Of course I do, dattebayo!"

"No matter what?"

"No matter what. Look what's going on?"

The old bat looked around at her colleagues. They nodded at her and she finally turned back to the confused blonde before her.

"Very well. Naruto meet your third teammate."

"What third teammate? What are you talking about?" He turned to Sai, confused. Sai nodded towards something on the other side of Naruto. The blonde turned his head, thinking the pale guy was telling him to ask Kakashi.

Kakashi shook his head as Naruto looked at him questioningly. He stepped back so the blonde could see the figure on his other side more clearly. He stood there staring for a moment. All the questions that had been racing through his mind halted in that instant.

"Sasuke…?"

* * *

**AN: So wow, this was kind of a fast update for me. You can thank being sick for that. Anyways. I had a lot of fun with this chapter. Sai's dick jokes crack me up, and so does his inability to understand how to interact with people. At this point though, he does it just to bother Naruto. It works.**

******I don't know if I made it obvious, but Sakura captured Sasuke. (That's a joke; I made it super obvious. Sakura pointed it out. A few times.) How? Well, patience my sweet readers. All is revealed in good time.**

**BUT FINALLY! Naruto and Sasuke meet! AT LONG LAST! Will we find out why Naruto never visited Sasuke? What will happen next? The suspense is killing me.**

**Also, I know this chapter is a tad shorter than the others (only about 1840 words not including author's note), but I decided I had to leave it on a cliff hanger so you'd be forced to write a review. *insert evil witch cackle* So on that note: please Review!**


	4. Pillow Cases and Pissed-Off Teammates

**Chapter 4**

The moment he saw the blonde walking in, his heart stopped. He didn't notice Kakashi, Sai, or the Elders who'd just been putting him through the Spanish Inquisition. He had eyes for only one person. If he had any doubts before regarding the possibility of having feelings for his former best friend, they were banished the moment the fox ninja opened his mouth.

The Uchiha didn't even hear the conversation between Naruto and the Elders. As soon as the guy had started talking, Sasuke's heart had switched tactics, deciding to beat a thousand miles a second. His own body was trying to kill him now.

After a few minutes of arguing, silence ensued. The raven noticed the sudden lack of noise, and realized he must've been the most recent topic of discussion. Everyone was staring either at him or the fox. The idiot still hadn't noticed him standing there, even though he'd been staring at him the entire time. He scowled slightly. Some things never changed.

But then he turned. He saw the raven. His jaw dropped slightly, as if in disbelief. They stood there spellbound for a moment, seeing each other for the first time since Sakura's first attempt at killing the Uchiha. Finally, the other spoke.

"…Sasuke?"

His heart was going to explode out of his chest, it was beating so fast. Maybe it would even destroy Konoha. What a brilliant plan; why had he never thought of it before?

"Miss me, Dobe?" He sincerely hoped the smirk he planted on his face would disguise his hands shaking. He crossed his arms in front of his chest. Just in case.

"I can see you're already acquainted," the damn hag was smirking. _Haha. Real fuckin funny._ "You are dismissed."

Kakashi approached him, blocking his view of the Jinchuriki. He glared at his former teacher; he would be damned if he forgave him for the last time they met, even if he had agreed to support him in his 'parole'.

"What do you want?" He spat, more venom in his voice than he expected.

"If you'd prefer, you could stay in chains forever." The white-haired ninja held the keys before Sasuke's face.

The Uchiha had no response. He silently allowed Kakashi to remove the offending handcuffs. When the chains were removed, Sasuke found himself unconsciously stretching his wrists.

"You remember the deal?" His former teacher smiled his trademark eye smile, but it didn't disguise the icy quality of his voice.

"Of course."

"Good."

"…"

Kakashi looked him up and down. "You might want to change into different clothes. You reek of dirt and bad intentions."

_If looks could kill, you'd be dead._ Sasuke internally grinned at his joke. Looks could kill. He just wasn't allowed to use his eye abilities; that was part of the deal. Instead, he settled on feigned indifference.

"I'll keep that in mind." And with that, he stalked away from Kakashi.

Of course the idiot was already gone. Sasuke mentally slapped himself. Here he was, after finally witnessing the _one person_ he actually wanted to see for the first time since getting back – if you called being shoved unceremoniously into a dark cell and blindfolded 'getting back' – and he was already back to calling him an idiot.

There was something seriously wrong with him.

He shook himself and started walking back towards the former Uchiha compound. _Maybe there are still some clothes there that'll fit me._ He ignored the figures silently stalking him.

* * *

Naruto allowed himself to be pulled out of the meeting and down the street. His mind was a whirlwind of thoughts. He wasn't really sure what was happening.

"Hey want to grab some dango?"

He didn't answer. There was something weird going on here; he just couldn't put his finger on it. So he still allowed himself to be drug around by his strange teammate.

"Eat it, Naruto."

Sai was poking him, but Naruto didn't care. It was right there, the wrong thing. It was on the tip of his tongue.

"I guess I'll feed it to you then, honey."

It wasn't till Sai had the dango pushed against his lips that the blonde figured it out. He slapped the offending snack away and grabbed the front of Sai's shirt.

"You just ruined some perfectly good food," Sai smiled. That damn smile made Naruto's desire to kill rise exponentially.

"Shut up, Sai," he growled. "You knew didn't you?"

Silence.

"Answer me dammit!"

"You just told me to shut up," the other ninja pointed out.

In a sudden rush of anger, Naruto threw his teammate away from him. Sai hadn't been expecting this, and he flew backwards into the fence behind. He fell to the ground, still staring at his suddenly furious friend.

Naruto simply glared down at him. His breathing had grown irregular in the past few seconds, and he found himself unable to control himself. His hands were fisted tightly by his sides, shaking with the desire to bury themselves in his friend's face.

_Calm down_, the fox's voice rang out in his mind. But he couldn't. _Naruto_, Kurama begged this time. He clenched his teeth together in response and glared at the street to his left, not looking at the ninja sprawled on the ground before him.

They remained this way for a few silent moments, Naruto trying to gain control over his emotions. Finally, he broke the silence.

"Did you know?" His voice was strained.

"It was my idea," the other stated.

Naruto whipped his head around and stared at Sai. "What?"

"It was my idea," he repeated.

"Why?" Naruto continued to try and calm his breathing.

"We needed a third teammate. There was no one left."

"And your solution was to ask a criminal to join our team?" His voice was incredulous.

"I thought it was the best way to get into the exam."

"…"

"I just wanted you to be happy," Sai's voice lowered to a whisper.

Suddenly, all of Naruto's anger disappeared. His teammate wasn't trying to piss him off. And it's not like the guy even knew his feelings on the subject; after all, he hadn't confided in anyone. He moved towards Sai, the other ninja flinching at his approach, but all the blonde did was sit next to his strange friend.

"I'm sorry," he supplied after a few moments of silence.

Sai gave Naruto a shocked look. "Shouldn't I be the one apologizing?"

"I didn't expect to see him." The fox ninja ignored the other's question.

"I'm sorry."

Naruto simply buried his head in his hands and said nothing.

"Why?"

"What?" The blonde's voice came out sharper than he'd planned.

"Why didn't you expect to see him? Didn't you know he was here?"

"Of course I knew."

"Oh…" Sai's voice trailed off.

"You thought I didn't?" Naruto was curious.

"At first. At first I thought the reason you never went to see him was because you didn't know he was here."

"No. I knew." The blonde's words were mostly for himself.

"So what was the real reason then?"

"None of your business." Despite the harsh words, Naruto's voice had no venom in it. He was tired. Between the Elders poor intentions and Sai's well-meaning ones, Naruto was going to wind up dead from stress.

"What about the test?"

_Yes, Naruto, what about the test?_

He was silent.

"Naruto?"

"Nothing changes," he whispered.

"What?"

"I said nothing changes. We'll take the test. I'm going to become Hokage." His mind was made up. This was his dream and nothing, not even Sasuke himself, could ruin this for him. He stood up.

"Where are you going?"

"Home."

Sai stood, as if to follow him.

"See you tomorrow," Naruto waved in dismissal. He walked back to his apartment alone.

* * *

Sasuke was awoken the next morning by the sound of tapping on his window. He opened his eyes blearily. It was still gray outside; who the fuck was knocking on his window? He stumbled to the door, not bothering to put a shirt on.

"What?" He asked as he opened it.

"Training begins today." It was Sai.

_Of course it's this guy. _"Good morning to you too, asshole"

"Be at the place Team 7 used to meet in an hour. That should give you enough time to pretty yourself up, dick-face."

Sasuke slammed the door in the other guy's face. _Fuck you. Fuck your family. Fuck everyone you've ever met._ He was not a morning person. He walked back to where he'd been sleeping and gazed longingly at the bed, before making it. The last thing he did was pick up the shirt he'd been using as a pillow case and fold it carefully on top of the pillow itself.

Even after all this time, Itachi's smell still clung to his old clothes. Of course none of them had fit Sasuke, so he'd settled for taking one to sleep with. He'd ended up stealing clothes from some random house down the street from his. It was in this house he was living now too; he couldn't bear to stay in the place where his entire family once resided.

He changed into the new clothes: a solid black ensemble similar to the one he'd worn when he battled Itachi – minus the ridiculous bow and cape, of course. He felt black fit his mood, and now he wouldn't have to hear about 'smelling like a dungeon' or other such nonsense.

Sasuke settled about making breakfast, his stomach rumbling slightly. He'd been so stressed after last night's encounter, he'd forgotten to eat. _At least I didn't forget to shower. I really did smell._ He ate silently, musing about the day before him.

Since Sai had arrived and told him where the training was occurring, it meant there was a high chance Naruto would be there. Despite his outward appearance, Sasuke did not relish this meeting. Last night might have been the first time they'd seen each other since the war, but it had been chaperoned.

The look the Naruto had given him last night led Sasuke to believe the blonde hadn't been avoiding him on accident. Sakura's voice swam through his head; _he's ashamed of what you've become_. He slammed his fist into the table.

"Shut up!"

It was not a good morning.

An hour after Sai's wake up call, Sasuke found himself waiting for the remainder of his new team. He was tired, irritated, and impatient. _Leave it to that idiot to be late to our first training._

As soon as the thought crossed his mind 'that idiot's' voice rang through the trees.

"…I'm telling you! It was the biggest snake I'd ever seen dattebayo!"

"Any snake other than your own is the biggest you've ever seen, Naruto-kun."

"I do NOT like what you're implying. And will you stop with the kun?"

"Should I call you dickless?"

"DO NOT CALL ME DICKLESS!"

Sasuke scowled as the two remaining members of his team appeared before him. He wasn't sure if he was angrier that they were late, or angrier they were together.

"How about honey, then?"

_Both_, he decided.

"That is no better, perv, and you know it."

"Che." Sasuke tsked, cutting off Sai's comeback.

"Ah. Sasuke-_kun_. So nice of you to join us." The other dark-haired ninja spoke with a condescending tone similar to one the Uchiha himself used occasionally. Naruto, on the other hand, slammed his mouth shut and stared pointedly away from them both.

"I came to train. If either of you plan on passing the exam, I suggest you join me." And with that he stalked away. If Naruto wanted to ignore his existence, fine; two could play that game.

To his surprise they both followed him to the old training grounds. Once they got there, he was at a loss; he had no idea how to work in a team anymore. To his great relief, Naruto took over.

"I think we should start by training individually."

"The test is taken in teams, and they need to make sure you can be a good leader," Sai pointed out.

"I know. That's why I got Sakura, Kiba, and Ino to agree and come down to be our opponents. I just meant we could start individually to warm up, you know?"

_Smart,_ Sasuke thought. _He's grown._

"That's a good idea, Naruto," Sai said, surprised.

_Asshole._

"Of course it's a good idea! I thought of it, dattebayo!"

_Idiot._

So they began training. Sai sat in one spot, creating progressively more and more complex ink animals, who ran around gathering information for him. Naruto began taijutsu training by dropping immediately on the spot into a set of push-ups. Sasuke, on the other hand, had no idea what to do. After training to kill his brother – followed by the entirety of Konoha – he had no idea how to train for something as menial as an exam. He finally settled on Chakara control. He walked up a tree and set it on fire, the goal being to burn slowly, with minimal Chakara, while also not dropping him into the forest.

This continued for a time, the three of them going about separate exercises, Naruto eventually running laps around the large area, until the sound of voices near the bridge indicated new arrivals. The Jinchurikki stopped running and waved his hand. Instantly, Sai and Sasuke jumped to join him.

"I told them to meet us at the bridge," the blonde spoke to the former Root member, rather than both of them. Sasuke felt his hands clench to fists. "Are you guys ready?"

"I am if pretty boy is," Sai grinned.

Sasuke nodded curtly, noticing how Naruto barely glanced in his direction.

"Let's go." The three of them jumped to meet their opponents of the day.

"…Kiba, I'm telling you, using Akimaru counts as ninjutsu, not taijutsu."

"But it's not like it requires Chakara all the time."

"I agree, Sakura, it's not the same as normal ninjutsu."

"_Well then_ if the great Ino-sama agrees, it must be true."

"You have a big forehead!"

"Ladies, ladies! As much as I enjoy being fought over – and believe me, I do – I'm afraid I'm already taken."

"Yo, Kiba! Sakura-chan! Ino!" Naruto jumped in the middle, stopping the murderous looks which appeared in both girls' eyes. Sasuke rolled his eyes and leaned back against the edge of the bridge.

"Naruto!" Kiba slammed his hand into the blonde's back. "I am so ready to kick your ass!"

"In your dreams, dog-breath. I am about to sweep the forest with your face."

"Sai," Ino cooed. "Are you going to tell us who the mysterious third member of your team is?"

"Yeah, Naruto. Sai was being vague about it yesterday. Is it true? You have a third?" Sakura pressed.

Naruto's smile slipped. "See for yourself." He jerked his finger in the direction of Sasuke.

The raven, not relishing the looks that were bound to appear on his former classmates' faces looked away with another "che."

"Sasuke?! No way, man!" Kiba shouted first.

"Sasuke-kun?!"

SLAM! Sasuke found himself facedown in the dirt. He turned to see a very pissed off pink-haired ninja getting ready to punch. _Not today_, he thought to himself. He flipped around, surprising the girl and throwing her off him. After the scene down in the dungeon, though, the raven-haired ninja did not find himself in such a forgiving mood. As she began to fly back, he grabbed her by the neck and jumped, slamming her back into the nearest tree.

She responded quickly, swinging one leg up and around, kicking him in an angle. Once she had leverage, she planted her foot into his stomach and pushed him off her. He back-flipped and landed easily on his feet. He looked up at her and smirked. Absolute rage painted itself on Sakura's features and she flew at him. He sidestepped and made to grab her foot, but she was too fast; all he was able to grab was a tree trunk. _A replacement!_

He barely had time to spin around before she slammed him to the ground yet again, one arm twisted painfully under his body. She straddled him, pinning the other, and raised her fist to slam it into his face. He twitched just in time to avoid the hit, but felt something painful hit the back of his head as the ground where she'd punched split beneath her fist. He had to act quickly or she might actually smash his brain.

He wrapped his legs around her waist and used his hips to flip them, switching positions. He held her arms firmly in place with his hands, using his legs to pin hers to the ground. He gathered both of her wrists into one of his hands and used his other to grab a kunai. Rage clouded his judgment.

"I will make you pay for what you did to me." He swung the blade down in a silver arc.

"Stop!" Something held his wrist in place, not letting him finish what he'd started. He looked over and saw a familiar pair of blue eyes staring back at him.

The rage seemed to disappear from his body, and he dropped the kunai, jumping away from Sakura in the process. She was helped to her feet by Ino and Sai. The blonde had already returned to his spot next to Kiba.

"Naruto…" Ino started.

"Take them home, Sai," Naruto said.

"But what about training?"

"I said _take them home_." There was an edge to his voice. Sai didn't argue again.

"Come one, ladies." He smiled at them and began to walk away. Ino followed immediately, but Sakura stood there for a moment. She was glaring at Sasuke, pure hatred in her eyes.

"Sakura, come one," Ino called back in a worried tone.

She gave him one last glare, as if to say 'this isn't finished,' before finally complying with her friend. When she reached Naruto, she stopped.

"Keep him away from me, do you understand?"

Naruto looked away from her, but she nodded anyway.

"Kiba, let's go," she called back to him.

"But, I, uh…"

"Go," Naruto's voice betrayed no emotion.

The dog-boy nodded and followed the other three. Sasuke turned to glare at the two ANBU who still had their heads poked out of their trees.

"I can handle this," the fox called to them.

They nodded and disappeared, leaving the two former best friends alone. Sasuke racked his brain hard, trying to think of some way to break the awkward silence between them, but to no avail. It was Naruto who first spoke.

"So, Uchiha. Why the fuck are you here?"

All Sasuke could do was stare.

* * *

**AN: Some of the syntax has been bothering the shit out of me, but I read it about 4 times in a row and decided "what the hell, I'll just post it." I wrote it immediately after chapter 3, so I've been slowly revising it for the past few days. (I am so evil for making you all wait)**

**Anyways, this chapter was jam packed with 3100+ words about Sasuke brooding, Naruto pissed off, and Sakura being awesome (not to mention Sai's wonderful dick jokes). I would LOVE to know what you think! Drop a review :)**


	5. Thinking and Drinking

_Warning: this chapter contains mild spoilers from ch. 614. Please catch up with the manga at least to this point before reading._**  
**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

It took Sasuke a moment to gather his thoughts. "What did you just say to me?"

Naruto glared back at him. "You heard me. _Why are you here_?"

"I was under the impression we were training for the upcoming exam. Why are you –"

"You know what I mean, Uchiha. Answer the question."

Sasuke wasn't sure what shocked him more: the icy tone of voice, lack of yelling, absence of nicknames such as "bastard", or the cold, dead look in Naruto's eyes. Everything about this moment contradicted what the blonde was known for; he was missing the warmth which usually radiated off him.

"Don't make me repeat myself a third time." The edge in his voice returned.

"I told you, I'm here to train –"

BAM. Sasuke found himself thrown back against a tree. _What the fuck just happened? How did he get so fast?_ But when he looked up, Naruto was still standing where he was before, a faint yellow glow disappearing from around his form. _What was that?_

"How did you…?" He trailed off, seeing the look in the blonde's eyes.

"Answer seriously this time, Uchiha." There it was again, _Uchiha_. He said it with such distain.

"This is my parole," he said finally.

"Parole?"

"Yes, idiot, parole. You know? The thing that happens after jail."

"I know what a parole is," there was a childish huffiness in his voice now, breaking through the glacier. "I meant why is _this_ your parole?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Ask your boyfriend. He set it up."

"My boy –?"

"The dark-haired one who shows off his midriff."

"Sai?!"

"That would be the one."

Sasuke fully expected Naruto to go into full hysterics at this, but instead, the blonde seemed to cool his head. He finally looked away from the Uchiha.

"I knew it was his idea. I guess I should've figured he'd talked to you."

_You knew?_

"Then why'd you ask?"

All the anger seemed to return to the blonde, as he looked back directly into the raven's eyes. Sasuke tried to step back, but all he managed to do was kick the tree's root.

"Because. Why would a person like _you_ want to help a person like _me_? You made it perfectly clear you wanted nothing to do with me last time we met."

The memories of the last time he'd encountered the Jinchurikki ran through Sasuke's mind at 100 miles per hour. His head was beginning to spin. _How the fuck do I answer that?_ It remained silent between them for a moment.

"Nevermind." Naruto's voice radiated disappointment. He suddenly spun on his heel and began walking in the direction his friends had gone.

"Wait," the raven's voice managed to croak out.

The blonde stopped but didn't turn, nor did he speak.

"What about training? What about the exam?"

"Looks like we're going to have to find a new way to do it." And with that he walked away.

Sasuke sunk to the ground, trying to understand this new information. Naruto hadn't said goodbye; he hadn't even given an indication of the next time they'd train together. _Goddammit_, Sasuke buried his head in his hands. _Why _am_ I here?_ _I should've just stayed in my jail cell_.

* * *

Naruto wasn't paying attention to where he was walking. All he could see was red. The sun was at its peak now, but he wasn't in the mood to see his friends. He wasn't even hungry. He was just angry.

_Naruto_, the deep voice of the Kyuubi broke through his thoughts.

_Go away, Kurama_, the ninja did not want to deal with this.

_You know I can't do that._

_ If that's your idea of a joke, it's not funny._

_ Sit down. We need to talk._

He knew if he didn't do what the fox said, he'd regret it later. He wandered a little ways into the trees and sat down. Naruto closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them he was inside his mind, sitting across from the Kyuubi.

_Yes?_ He sounded more irritated than he'd intended.

_I told you before, when you were attacking the other one, to calm down._

_ And I did._

_ Eventually._

_ How could you expect me to forgive _him_?_

_ Naruto,_ Kurama's voice became even more serious. _It is not that I expect you to forgive him. I expect you to have restraint; there's a difference. You have every reason to be angry._

_ Damn right, dattebayo._

The fox tutted with annoyance. _You are not listening._

_ No, I heard you crystal clear; I can be angry._

_ Naruto._

_ Kurama._

_ You may have befriended me, but even a friend doesn't like being used._

_What are you talking about?_

_Nobody likes having their chakara ripped out of them._

_ Are you saying I did that?_

_ You used a large amount of Chakara when you attacked him. Did you think it came purely from your own store?_

_Do_ y_ou mean when I used the Flash…?_

_ I have no issues lending you my power, Naruto. Do not take it forcefully; this is your warning._

Naruto felt his eyes open. The first thing he did was mentally block the Kyuubi from his thoughts. _Goddammit. I need to control myself, _he realized. He was angrier than he'd been since before being recognized by Iruka-sensei, and he had his inner demon literally threatening him.

He shook his head a bit to clear it. The sun was almost beginning to set now; time was something he could never keep track of when with Kurama. His stomach growled, drawing his mind fully back to the present.

_Oh yeah, I was going to meet with Sakura-chan and them for dinner_, he remembered.

Naruto finally stood and began to walk back towards town, thoughts of Sasuke pushed from his memory. He didn't even need to look around for his friends; as predicted, they were sitting on the stools just outside Ichiraku.

"Naruto!" Kiba shouted in welcome as soon as the blonde was within sight of the group.

"Yo," he grinned, before sitting down between him and Ino. Sakura was on the far side of the table, making a point to avoid him. _She'll forgive me eventually_, he thought to himself before turning to take in the rest of the group.

The number of ninjas who graduated the academy in his year had dwindled significantly since the war. Those around the table – and Rock Lee, who was rarely seen with groups of people anymore – were the only ones left. To his left sat Kiba, draping his arm around Hinata. Shino was already eating his ramen on her other side, ignoring the conversation around him as usual. On Naruto's right, Ino and Ten Ten were laughing at something Sai was saying, while Sakura watched them unamused.

Naruto's food was soon brought up; he was clearly expected. Once it was placed before him, the table became quiet, everyone more immersed in stuffing their faces than continuing to converse.

Today's events, however, were bound to come up eventually. And sure enough, a few minutes into the meal, Hinata cleared her throat.

"Naruto-kun?"

"Hmm?" He turned to her, mouth completely full of food. She blushed and looked away as he swallowed his ramen. Though she'd stopped constantly blushing around Naruto since beginning to date Kiba, she still looked uncomfortable whenever the blonde did something not considered socially acceptable.

"Um…I was just wondering…is it true Sasuke's on your team for the Chunnin exam?"

Suddenly, his appetite was gone. He glared at his noodles, trying to will flavor back into them. "Yeah," he responded finally.

"How could you not believe me?" Kiba sounded scandalized.

"I-I did, Kiba-kun!"

"You said yourself you would doubt everything we told you until Naruto confirmed our story," Shino butt in.

"Shino!" She tried in vain to defend herself.

"See?! Even bug-boy says you didn't believe me. No fair, Hinata-channn," Kiba whined, clearly trying to bring some cheer back after a dark cloud had seemed to settle over the table.

"Are you okay with this, Naruto?" Ten Ten asked.

"Yeah," Ino added. "I know you were close before, and then he left and all. Must be a real blow to have him back like nothing happened in the first –"

Naruto stood up quickly, cutting the girl off. Sai was looking at him with an expression on his face that mirrored concern. He stood there for a second, not sure what to do.

"Naruto?"

"I'm going home," he decided.

"Naruto-kun…"

He turned to leave. "See you guys later."

It wasn't till he was almost at his apartment that he realized he'd walked away without having much to eat. For a moment, he considered heating up some instant ramen. But his stomach clenched painfully at the thought, and he decided he wasn't really hungry after all.

A noise drew his attention, and he looked up to see a figure sneaking away into the dark. The person appeared to be carrying something heavy, and he knew immediately it was Lee. Naruto almost considered chasing after him, but the memories of earlier crashed back into his mind, and he decided it was better to not be around people.

_Guess I'll have to deal with it alone_, he thought. And with that, he unlocked his door and disappeared into his room.

* * *

After Naruto had left around midday, Sasuke had sat in a state of shock. It had taken him a while to snap out of it and get angry. At that moment he'd begun pacing and ranting under his breath about blonde idiots. Soon, pacing and ranting hadn't been enough to accurately portray his rage, so he'd taken to shooting lightening at trees. Several exploded trees later, in a completely new area, Sasuke found himself in the same position he'd begun; back against a tree, head resting defeated on his knees.

He'd exhausted most of his Chakara by this time and wanted nothing more than to fall asleep undisturbed. Neither wish was granted, when the sounds of a large object crashing through the trees reached his ears. His head immediately jerked up toward the sound.

It was mid-evening by this point, and he wasn't entirely sure what went on outside Konoha after dark anymore. For all Sasuke knew, the crashing sounds could be anything from a large predatory animal to two people having loud sex. But when a figure clumsily waltzed through the trees, he knew it was neither.

He was actually surprised the person hadn't seen him yet, but the surprise disappeared when he saw what appeared to be copious amounts of alcohol in his hands. The fading sunlight hit the face of the person and Sasuke was able to see his features clearly. He bore strong resemblance to a person who'd once challenged him at the first Chunnin exam he'd taken. The Uchiha was unable to contain himself.

"Lee?"

The other ninja jumped almost out of his skin at the sound. He must've been pretty out of it, because it took him a moment to find the source of the outburst.

"Who're you?" His voice already had a slight slur to it.

Sasuke stood up and stepped forward, rather than answering.

"Uchiha Sasuke?!" He sounded shocked. "Wow, I guess the rumors were true. You're really back."

_Rumors?_ "Yeah, I guess so."

Lee took a swig from his bottle, before sitting. "Wanna join?" He asked, not even looking back.

The Uchiha shrugged, knowing the other couldn't see him. A couple seconds of silence later, Sasuke sat next to the bushy-browed guy, swinging his legs over the edge of the cliff.

"Looks kinda pretty up here, huh?" Lee took another drink. The two of them gazed at Konoha from above, the lights shining against the approaching darkness.

"Yeah." In a way, it did look somewhat nice.

Without warning, Lee slammed the bottle into Sasuke's chest. He caught it reflexively.

"You need a drink, Uch'ha," the other ninja said, sounding drunker than before.

At first, Sasuke was hesitant to take up the offer. But looking at the city reminded him of earlier, so he tilted his head back and poured some of the sake down his throat. He coughed after, not expecting the flavor to be so strong.

"Thanks," he choked out, handing the sake back. Lee gulped down another drink and handed it back to Sasuke.

"I wasn't expectin to see you outta chains, Uch'ha." Sasuke took another sip and handed it back.

"Well, I managed to get out early."

"Why?"

"Chunnin exam."

"Ohhhh," the other seemed to understand. "With Nar'to?" He took the rice wine from Sasuke and took another drink. The Uchiha was suddenly sad to see it gone; he was not nearly drunk enough to talk about the blonde yet. Luckily, Lee handed it back quickly. Sasuke took a much larger gulp this time than previously, before answering.

"Yeah."

The other stole it away again, before responding. "Can't 'magine he's too happy 'bout that."

He took a larger share this time than before. "Nope."

Lee took the bottle. "Shit," he turned it over. "Already empty."

Though feeling much fuzzier than earlier, the Uchiha was still not ready to think about Naruto. He was half considering ditching the awkward situation, when the other ninja pulled out a second, unopened bottle. He opened it, took the first sip, and handed it to Sasuke.

He chugged down another large amount before handing it back. "I'm prrty sure he hates me," he slurred, starting to sound almost as bad as Lee.

"You start'd a war that kill'd all our friends. Can't say I'm too pleassed ether."

Sasuke held the drink for a moment, before tilting it back again. "Kiba's still alive."

"Mmm. And so's Hin'ta," Lee didn't drink his share this time. "But not Neji." Sasuke took another sip. He wasn't sure what to say.

"Nejji was my best friend," Lee slurred before he could figure it out. "We were rivals an' all, but best friends. Losing him wasn' good."

"Losing people sucks," he agreed.

"Good die young."

"Mmm."

"Uch'ha," he slurred, swirling the bottle around in his hand.

"Mhm?"

"Ill you do me fav'r? You pr'tend to be Nej, k?"

"Wha? No. I'm not doin some weird roleplay thing."

"Jus do it." Before Sasuke could respond, Lee was kneeling in front of him, gripping his shoulders so he couldn't move.

"Oy. I said no."

"Nejji," Lee ignored him. "I know I said, said some stuff. Before, I said we're rivals, not friends." It was clear to Sasuke that the bushy browed guy was trying very hard not to slur, but his eyes were still unfocused. "But, I wann you to know somefing. We're friends. Always friends. K?" His hands were beginning to shake. "'N I didn' mean it when I said I hated you that one time. 'M sorry Nej. 'M so sorry." Lee's eyes started to water. "'N 'M sorry too for sayin you didn deserve to be Jou'in." Tears were falling freely now. "I didn' wan you to die, Nej. I didn'." He suddenly dropped his hold on Sasuke, and turned away to hide his crying.

Sasuke wasn't sure what to do. Rather than figure that out, he picked up the sake and took another drink. At this point, the world was starting to spin a little in front of his eyes. He waited a few moments before speaking.

"D'you really think Nar'to hates me?"

"Hmm?" Lee was still turned away.

"'E acts like it."

"Mmmye don't hang 'round wit them much, so I unno."

"Oh."

They sat there quietly for a moment, before the bushy-browed ninja grabbed the Sake. A few moments later, he stood up. "Les go home."

"Huh?"

"Sake," the bushy browed ninja tipped the bottle over, only a couple drops falling to the ground below.

Sasuke stood up shakily; the world spun out from under him as soon as he was up. "Shit," he mumbled, trying to regain his balance. He caught on to Lee instead. After a few moments of awkward struggling, they finally began to stumble back towards town. Neither of them noticed the figure watching them from the trees.

* * *

**AN: Before asking questions, read this note:**

**1. The reason Lee can drink without punching someone will be revealed (probably next chapter). There is a legitimate reason.**

**2. Yes, people who aren't dead in the manga are dead here. The only one who's died in both so far is Neji. Hence the warning at the beginning. Some people who weren't mentioned and aren't around the table may still be alive. If you're impatient and want to know who's dead and who's not, PM me and I can tell you. Otherwise it will be revealed as the story continues. (I am also aware of the distinct possibility Kakashi could die in the canon. I don't like that, so he's still alive...for now)**

**3. There will be no Sakura or Hinata bashing in this story. Yes, Sakura's angry, but it's understandable considering the circumstances.**

**4. And finally, if you like the story and you want to see an update sooner rather than later...drop a review! Reviews are like story food to me, so the more I get, the faster I type.**


	6. What Makes a Friend?

**Chapter 6**

Early morning found Naruto back in the training area, ruthlessly destroying trees with Rasengan. He hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, and as the world outside had changed from black to grey, he'd given up on sleeping and decided to let off some excess energy. After a while, he stopped and leaned his head against the nearest, non-destroyed tree.

In all honesty, he wasn't sure how long he was out there – or even what time it was – until someone placed a hand on his shoulder. He almost jumped out of his skin before turning around.

"Sai?"

"Hello, Naruto-kun," Sai's face held an expression close to concern.

"You're here early today, aren't you?" The blonde asked, scratching his head.

"Not exactly. It's the same time we met yesterday."

"Is it?" Naruto was surprised. How long _had_ he been out here?

Sai simply nodded, still looking concerned. He gazed at Naruto a moment before finally breaking contact. "Have you been here long then?" The dark-haired ninja scanned the area surrounding them.

"I'm actually not sure, to be honest," the blonde admitted. "I've been here since a little before sunrise."

Sai's head snapped back towards him. "That long?"

Naruto shrugged, unsure how best to answer.

"Does this have anything to do with training yesterday?" The other ninja asked bluntly.

"Yeah."

"What happened after we left?"

For a moment, Naruto considered lying, but he knew there'd be nothing to gain from it. "We talked." He knew he didn't have to be specific; Sai knew who he was talking about.

"Based on what I imagine you've been doing all morning, it didn't go well."

_That's the understatement of the year_, Naruto thought. "Of course it didn't go well. I started yelling at him." He wasn't going to tell Sai everything that had happened, but it started spilling out of him anyways. "I kept asking him why he was here, and he looked so shocked, like I'd hurt him or something. He told me this was his _parole_; it seemed as though he felt he were being punished by having to be on my team, which I guess he is, in a way. We weren't exactly friends last we talked."

He began pacing while talking, trying to let it all out. "I mean where does he get off acting like a total tool? It's like he thinks _he's_ the victim here, when _I _was the one who was betrayed by my best friend and now _I_ have to deal with him again in the same situation that got us into this mess in the first place." His voice was starting to raise pitch exponentially.

"So I just kept calling him Uchiha, because he's not the Sasuke who was my friend before, and I expected him to react to it somehow. But he just stood there and took it, like some kind of idiot. And no matter what I tell myself, he still _looks _like Sasuke. But he's not. He can't be. Sasuke was my best friend and I can't accept that he would actually try to destroy everything I hold dear. I can't. He's not… We're not…" Naruto trailed off. He still couldn't put it into words.

"You should talk to him."

"I _did_, or were you not listening?" The blonde said venomously.

"I mean you should try to make peace."

"Excuse me?" Naruto was teetering on the edge of rage again.

"Look, Naruto," Sai dropped the honorific, clearly attempting to calm his teammate. "I'm not his biggest fan either. I was there when he tried to kill you at your first reunion, remember?

"I know I was ordered to kill him and all, but I couldn't because _you_ wouldn't shut up about friendship and how much he meant to you. And then he disappeared and you sunk into some kind of weird depression or something…" He paused a moment, but Naruto was just staring at him, open mouthed.

"And then I heard he attacked you again. Granted, it was kind of Sakura-chan's fault I couldn't actually _be_ there to back you up, but I still heard about it later. This guy tried to kill you _twice_, Naruto. You think I can forgive someone who wants to hurt my best friend? I can't.

"So when I decided to ask him to join the team, I did it because it really _was_ the only choice. Believe me, if there were a better way, I would've found it. I want to see you become to Hokage, Naruto. Don't think for a moment that I'm going to let someone like him prevent you from achieving your dream."

Naruto stared wide-eyed at Sai while he gave his speech, but when it was over he let his gaze drop to the ground. A terrible feeling of guilt overcame him. He mumbled under his breath.

"What?" The other asked, curious.

"I'm sorry," the blonde said louder this time. He frowned. "And he didn't try to kill be twice."

"Yes he did Naruto, or are you forgetting when you had to save Sakura-chan from her assassination attempt?

"I'm not forgetting anything. I'm telling you he didn't try to kill me twice; it was three times. He tried to kill me three times." The blonde looked up. "The first wasn't at the reunion; it was when he left the village to join Orochimaru. We went on a mission to bring him back. I promised Sakura I would, even if I had to drag him kicking and screaming. I tried to stop him, but I couldn't." Naruto suddenly had to look away, not wanting his teammate to see him fighting back tears. The terrible, awkward silence enveloped them again.

"I'll talk to him," He said finally. "I want to be Hokage, after all. I won't let anyone stop me." He looked back at Sai, confident there were no tears remaining. "But for now, we have to train."

The other ninja smiled, all concern gone from his face. "Very well." He looked around the area. "Where is that arrogant bastard anyways?"

* * *

The feeling of a small army marching its way across his head awoke Sasuke from an unpleasant, dreamless sleep. His eyes slid unfocused about the room, taking in the unfamiliarity. _Where the fuck am I?_ He wondered hazily.

He sat up, groaning, as pain and memories of the night before rushed to his head. One hand pressing against his skull, Sasuke tried to take in his surroundings.

He was reclining on a couch, which meant he must not have made it home the night before. Based on his half black memories, the Uchiha assumed he was in Lee's flat. A clock on the wall across the couch ticked softly, indicating it was just after 9 in the morning; approximately an hour later than training had started the day before.

The raven-haired ninja swung his legs off the couch and immediately buried his head in his hands. According to the level of shit he felt like – what with the pounding headache and the nausea – Sasuke had to assume this was the dreaded hangover he'd heard of in the past. He sat there a few moments, before deciding to try his hand at standing up.

He instantly regretted his decision. The world seemed to swing out from under him the second he was upright, and a familiar, unsettling feeling rumbled throughout his body. _Dear gods, am I _still_ drunk?!_ He lurched into the nearest room, hoping to find either a toilet to vomit in or water to drink; he was so unsure what his body wanted from him at this point.

Luck was on his side, as he ended up in a bathroom, where he was able to take care of the first problem. After he flushed and washed his face and hands, Sasuke stared in the mirror. He looked like shit. His face was paler than normal, giving him a ghostly appearance, and his hair was poking out of his head in odd directions. He splashed more cold water on his face, knowing it wouldn't help much, and exited the bathroom.

The next room he found was the kitchen, solving his second issue of being more dehydrated than he'd ever felt in his life. He poured himself a glass of water and leaned against the counter, closing his eyes as he drank it. When Sasuke opened them, he found a note sitting on the table against which he was resting. He picked it up and stared at it with partially unfocused vision.

_Sasuke – I didn't wake you because you seemed to be sleeping peacefully. Feel free to eat whatever from the fridge! –Your friend, Lee_

The Uchiha stared at the note. He read it again. Then a third time. _Your friend, Lee. __**Friend**_. The word stuck out in his mind, tormenting him. He couldn't say he'd ever been able to call anyone his friend before. Not since…

The walls shrunk around him and in that moment he needed to get out of the confined space. He dumped the remainder of his water in the sink, left a hasty _thank you_ under Lee's note, and practically ran out of the flat. He leaned his head – still feeling as though it were being constricted – against the building and breathed as deeply as he could.

Once Sasuke didn't feel as though he were going to pass out or – gods forbid – vomit again, he stood up and looked about him. The village looked different since he'd lived here – probably due to the multitude of attacks it had encountered in the span of four years – but he was still able to gauge an approximate location for where he was. Using what he remembered of Konoha from years previous, Sasuke set out towards the former Uchiha compound, trying his best to avoid people as he went.

Despite the early hour, plenty of people were out and about, running errands or getting ready for the day. Even with his best efforts to avoid people, Sasuke wound up passing villagers he recognized as well as those he'd never seen before. They all glared at him as he walked by.

_Not even subtle_, he thought sourly, squinting against the sunlight. The obvious animosity the villagers exhibited towards him was not helping his headache. He needed to get back to the place he now called home, bury himself in his blankets, and sleep until he couldn't feel pain anymore. _I am never drinking again_, he swore to himself as he entered the compound. _Never again_.

A flash of white on one of the boards he passed caught his eye. He approached it, and squinted at the paper. Sasuke's eyes narrowed. _Great, something new to add to the list of shit out to get me_. He ripped it off and shoved it into his pocket, ignoring the constant glares from the villagers.

Somehow he'd succeeded in making it to his apartment. He fumbled with the keys – how he'd managed to not lose them was a mystery – and opened the door. It was cool and dark inside, two feelings he welcomed with all his heart. Sasuke climbed into his new bed, buried his face in Itachi's old shirt, and passed out.

* * *

Naruto decided to call it quits around noon. He and Sai had sparred for a while, but the blonde was feeling tired after having "trained" the entire morning. He finally sunk to the ground, eyes closed, a large sigh escaping his lips.

"Too tired to continue, dickless?" A taunting voice caused Naruto to open his eyes and glare at his so-called "teammate".

"Don't call me dickless, perv."

"What are you planning to do about it, small-dick-san?"

His glare hardened. "I'm going to kick your ass." Exhaustion overwhelmed his body. "Tomorrow."

The other's eyebrows raised. "But not right now?"

"Shut up, I'm tired." Naruto closed his eyes again.

"Well if that's really ok with you…"

Silence.

"Does that mean training's over?"

"Yeah. We'll continue tomorrow."

"Assuming the Uchiha shows up?"

Naruto's eyes flew open, all tiredness suddenly gone.

"Would you like me to speak with him about tomorrow?"

"No." The blonde stood up, his voice sharper than he'd originally intended. "No," he repeated, softer this time.

Sai looked at him questioningly.

"I think you should stay out of this, Sai," Naruto declared. "No offense, but I think you've done enough. This is my problem now, and I'd like if you didn't butt in."

"Bluntly stated, Naruto-kun."

"I mean it, Sai," the sharpness returned to his voice. "I don't want you talking to him, or threatening him, or whatever you were doing."

"I never –" The other objected.

"I'm not as stupid as you or Sakura would like to think. I know you went down and visited him in prison." It was more of a guess really, but the shocked look on Sai's face was confirmation enough.

"How did you…?"

"Just leave it alone, ok?"

The two ninjas glared at each other for a moment, before the dark-haired one finally nodded. "Fine."

Naruto nodded. Sai turned and walked away. "I'll see you tomorrow, dickless."

Feeling more confident about his self-control, Naruto too began to walk. He had something to do, and the sooner it was taken care of, the better.

* * *

When Sasuke next awoke, he was feeling considerably better than before. His headache was still there, but it had dwindled since the morning, and the terrible feeling of still being drunk was gone. He couldn't say he felt particularly rested, but it was an improvement.

He stumbled out of bed to get a drink of water, still feeling slightly dehydrated. It wasn't till his third cup that a knock at the door startled him out of his trance. Confused, he walked toward it. Opening it, he almost dropped his glass in shock.

Naruto stood on his doorstep, looking distinctly like he did not want to be there. Sasuke resisted the urge to pinch himself and test his waking state. Finally, he managed to pull himself back to reality.

"Naruto?"

The blonde looked up at him, almost startled to be addressed. "You gonna let me in, or what?" He glowered.

Too stunned to speak, Sasuke stood back and motioned for Naruto to enter. The Jinchurikki stomped in and glared about the room, looking everywhere but at the Uchiha before him. The words _please, make yourself at home_ died in his throat, and he swallowed uncomfortably before closing the door. It only took a few moments for curiosity to get the better of him.

"What are you doing here?" He realized belatedly that the question mirrored the one Naruto had asked him the day before. The blonde didn't seem to notice, or if he did, he didn't care.

"We need to talk."

"Okay." Sasuke wanted nothing more than to sit while having this conversation, but Naruto seemed content to lean against the wall with his arms crossed.

"Why weren't you at training today?"

"Um…" _Because I was still drunk out of my mind and could barely manage to walk home, let alone spar with an angry former teammate._ "I thought you didn't want me there."

"What would make you think that?"

"You said you'd figure something else out for the training and exam."

The blonde stopped looking angry in favor of wearing a confused expression. "I meant we needed to find a better way to practice sparring against another team."

"Oh."

"Besides. Isn't this your parole?"

Sasuke started. He thought that was a sore point, but Naruto mentioned it nonchalantly. "It is."

"And if you don't do it, then you probably get thrown back in your cell, right?"

"Probably." The Uchiha's lip curled up in distaste. He did not want to go back there.

"Then you might want to be there tomorrow. Who knows how long we even have till the exam itself."

"Three weeks."

This time it was the blonde's turn to look startled. "What? How did you hear that?"

Sasuke reached in his pocket and uncrumpled the paper he'd grabbed earlier. Naruto darted forward and snatched it out of his hands. His eyes darted back and forth quicker than in the past; he'd gotten faster at reading.

"In the _Sand_?!" The blonde exclaimed, seeming to forget who he was speaking to. "But it takes ages to get there!"

"A few days, yes."

"And we have to be there in three weeks! That's less than a month!" Naruto looked back up at Sasuke, as if begging him to change the exam date.

"It also says that most of the other Konoha ninjas will be leaving in two weeks' time. We can join their caravan and get there a few days early…" Sasuke trailed off, aware that this was the first normal conversation he and Naruto had had in over three years.

The blonde seemed to realize the same thing, because he suddenly stepped back and averted his eyes. "We should probably leave with them, then."

"Yeah." The Uchiha wasn't even sure what they were talking about anymore, and he had a feeling his companion was in the same boat. He was still wondering _why_ Naruto had come to see him in the first place. As if hearing his thoughts, the blonde spoke.

"Look. I meant everything I said yesterday. But all feelings aside, we need to be teammates. You get your freedom out of this and I get to become Hokage. So for the sake of the exam, I've come to declare a truce." He didn't make eye-contact with the raven-haired ninja while saying this.

Sasuke was shocked. He expected the blonde to be there to rip him a new one for missing a day of training, but instead he was…declaring peace? The Naruto he remembered would never declare truce with someone he considered a rival or an enemy; he'd really matured in the three years they weren't together. If it weren't for the slight headache indicating he was awake, the raven would have claimed he were still dreaming. After a second of staring dumbfounded at his former best friend, he finally responded.

"Truce."

The Uchiha found the exchange so odd, he almost expected Naruto to shake his hand and give him details of the contract he'd unwittingly made. Instead, he changed the subject.

"If I were you, though, I would avoid running into Sakura-chan."

Sasuke grimaced. "I wasn't planning to."

The blonde ignored him. "We have training tomorrow morning. Same time as yesterday."

"Okay."

The blonde walked towards the door, opening it before turning towards the raven once again. "Don't ditch out this time, Teme."

"Oh I won't."

Naruto turned his back and walked away, leaving the door open in his wake. Sasuke watched as he disappeared.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world."

* * *

**AN: You asked for a fast update, and I delivered. Reviews are like story food for me, believe it. I went through about 3 edits of this, and Naruto's speech about Sasuke still isn't...perfect. I may tweak it later, but as I read it, I determined it was at least good enough for an initial post.**

**Anywho, I lied in my last AN; it appears as though Lee's ability to drink without going all drunken fists on those around him wasn't revealed this chapter. It will be eventually. Promise.**

**As usual, let me know what you think by dropping a review! The chuunin exam is fast approaching!**


	7. Issues With Training

_9. May 2013: Small consistency error corrected._

* * *

**Chapter 7**

_ I will not murder Uzumaki Naruto. I will not._ Sasuke was beginning to develop a tick above his right eye. After showing up nearly half an hour late, his blonde teammate had decided it was a _fucking wonderful_ idea to have the three of them train together, rather than alone as they had the first day. It was a good thought. Except he was an idiot. A complete fucking idiot.

"Naruto," he started, through clenched teeth. "If you are _seriously_ suggesting we do that, then you are out of your fucking mind."

"What?" The idiot in question asked innocently.

_I WILL NOT KILL UZUMAKI NARUTO._

"You _honestly_ think it's a good idea to have us group together and try to steal those god damned bells from your _clone_? Have you completely lost it?"

"We did it when we first trained with Kakashi-sensei." Was he pouting?

"Nearly four years later and you still miss the point."

He received an icy stare for that one. "The point, asshole, is that we work together as a team, not against each other."

Whoa. He had gotten it after all. "Then you do understand why it makes no fucking sense for us to go against your clone."

Naruto just looked confused.

"I think what the arrogant bastard is trying to say is: we can't train as a team if we're going up against you, Naruto-kun," Sai cut in. Sasuke glared in his direction, and – to his surprise – so did Naruto.

"One: stop calling me 'Naruto-kun', Sai. We've had this discussion a thousand times. Two: you wouldn't be going against me, it'd be a clone. Kakashi showed me how it worked. See you can send them out and when they disappear you get their knowledge…"

"Other than the fact you just revealed another reason for us to not train against three of your clones, there's the issue of us _going against your clones_. That means anything you do, it can mirror. Do you see my point?"

The raven was once again on the receiving end of the glare. He ignored the strange feeling in the pit of his stomach, and haughtily gazed back at his teammate.

"It's the strongest opponent we can hope for, Teme, so unless you have a better idea you can shut up."

_I do have a better idea. How about we string you up by your fucking toes and leave you for the birds?_

"Why don't we all go against each other? A free-for-all," Sai suggested.

"Hmm. Let's think about that a moment. Maybe because that _defeats the purpose of us training as a team_." The former Root member was starting to get on Sasuke's nerves.

"Not to mention I don't want to go against his stupid eye magic. It's like cheating, you know?"

_Eye magic?_ Despite himself, Sasuke found himself mentally grinning at the idiotic description of his Sharingan. It soon turned into a frown, however, when he remembered one crucial detail of his parole.

"I can't use it anyway, usuratonkachi, so that wouldn't be an issue." He wasn't really sure why he was arguing with the blonde; he'd just sided with Sasuke against Sai.  
"What do you mean you can't use it? Lost your nerve?" The taunting tone brought the tick back to the Uchiha's left eye.

"No, you idiot. It's part of my parole."

The blonde looked genuinely confused. "Really? Won't that make taking the exam difficult?"

_I'm pretty sure that was the point. _"They don't exactly want someone who can produce inexhaustible fire from their mind using it on innocent people. One shift in my eye color and I go right back in the cell." _Not to mention they don't want you to have any advantages, since they're banking on your failure._

Naruto seemed to realize something. "Wait. Don't we have a written exam? How are we supposed to–?"

"Yo!" The dog-loving ninja popped into the area and shouted across at the three ninja. "Aren't you assholes supposed to be training?"

The expression on Naruto's face changed into something more relaxed as he bounced over toward the newcomers. "Kiba! It's about time!"

"Geez, you missed me, didn't you?" Sasuke ground his teeth together at the comment. "Seriously though, weren't you supposed to be training _before_ we got here?"

"Well, uh," the blonde scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "To be honest –"

"He thought it was a good idea to go against his _clones_ as training until you guys got here," the Uchiha supplied, more venomously than expected.

"Drop it, teme," the blonde hissed toward him.

Kiba's eyes widened at the exchange, and Sasuke even noticed Hinata looking a tad stunned.

Sasuke allowed a smirk to appear on his face. "But it's too perfect. You actually thought it was a good idea to train against yourself, when you even _said_ you learn what the clone –"

"I said _drop it_." The blonde was now facing the raven, looking dangerously close to charging.

"Naruto-kun…" To Sasuke's surprise, it was the Hyuuga who spoke. "Shouldn't we be more focused on training? You don't have very long before you leave…" She trailed off, blushing furiously under the stares from the four men – nobody ever really know what Shino was looking at.

"Yeah," the blonde visibly relaxed, before turning fully back to team eight.

"So," the dog boy finally turned his eyes away from the girl. "What do you want us to do?"

"Ok, the plan is simple. You take these bells and keep them from us. We need to get them both in order to win."

"You want to play a game of keep away?" Kiba laughed. "We're not children in the academy anymore Naruto."

"He has a point, Kiba." The bug boy finally spoke.

"What?"

Shino didn't respond.

"The point, dog-breath," Naruto began. "Is that it helps work on our teamwork. Stealing two bells from three of you will be kinda hard. Plus, I remember in the exam I took ages ago, that one of the stages was stealing a scroll from a different team, while keeping your own scroll. And when I was talking to Sakura-chan about the test you all took when I was gone, there was a similar section."

Wow. The blonde had really done his research. He wasn't simply coming up with mindless exercises for them to work through; he was actually trying to prepare them for the exact trials they would experience in a little under a month. The idea crossed Sasuke's mind that Naruto would make a good leader.

"Oh. Right." Were the only words Kiba said.

They got started a moment later, when the blonde handed the bells to Shino and team eight disappeared into the trees. Sasuke turned to his teammates. They were going to need to strategize before they attacked.

He was shocked when Naruto immediately jumped into the trees chasing after the group, without a word. The Uchiha found himself sharing incredulous looks with Sai. He instantly regretted his thought that Naruto would make a good leader; clearly he hadn't thought things through.

In unison, the two ninjas jumped up and raced after the blonde. He was fast, but they were able to catch up in a few moments. Sai threw a kunai, surprising Naruto so he dropped back to the forest floor. Sasuke took advantage of it, following the blonde and pinning him on a nearby boulder. A soft thud behind him alerted him to Sai's presence.

"What the fuck, Uchiha?!" Naruto squirmed under him, a panicked expression clear as day on his face.

"We are supposed to work together as a team, moron."

"We _were_ working together as a team! We were all chasing them until this asshole decided to jump me!"

He was the biggest idiot in the world.

"You are the biggest idiot in the world."

"What did you just say to me?!"

"Che. Do you even know how to work in a team?"

"Do _you_ even know how to work in a team?" The blonde retorted.

"Dobe, a team _discusses_ things before jumping into action. Remember what Kakashi said? 'Those who do not support their teammates are lower than garbage.' That means we have to _know_ what you're going to do, not guess it."

"That seems hypocritical," Naruto mumbled so Sasuke could barely hear him. The raven paled slightly.

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing."

"Anyway, Naruto-kun, we need to strategize how we're going to steal the bells. Remember they've been through 2 chunin exams now, so they know how to keep things hidden from those they don't want detecting it." Sai added.

The blonde grumbled something incoherent.

"What did you say, small-dick-san?"

"I said fine. I get it. Now can you _please_ get off me?" He addressed the last to Sasuke.

Feeling somewhat embarrassed, the raven stood up. He held out a hand to help the blonde up, but Naruto was already standing.

"So what do we do, then?" The blonde was looking determinedly at the ground.

Sai pulled out his scroll and drew something hastily. A moment later several rats ran out and disappeared. "Naruto-kun, when they come back with information, you're going to make six clones, two for each of us, and use them as decoys. Ok?"

He nodded.

"Sasuke," the first ninja turned his head towards the Uchiha. "I know you can't use your Sharingan, but you still have other jutsus, right?" The raven bristled at the condescending tone.

"Of course I do." '_Do I have other jutsus?' Fuck him._

"Good. You can help subdue them. That is, if it's not too much trouble." The asshole was being outright hostile now.

"It won't be too much trouble, dick-brain. Just try to keep up with me."

Sai opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, a few of the ink rats returned. They threw themselves onto the scroll, splashing into words that the former Root member read at lightning speed. He rolled it up and looked back at them.

"Time to go."

Immediately, Naruto threw himself back into the air, six clones appearing as he did. Sasuke made to follow, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

"Call me a dick-brain if you'd like _Sasuke-kun_, but I think we both know whose is in yours." Sai flung himself into the trees before Sasuke could respond. He felt his face begin to redden uncomfortably, anger and an unknown emotion battling for his attention. He was most certainly _not_ after _anyone's_ dick. He shook his head to exorcise the thoughts and ran after the others. He'd be damned if he let himself be made fun of for not keeping up with that pompous ass.

* * *

Several hours later, after successfully capturing the bells from team eight at least three times – Naruto would argue they got them four times, but Kiba insisted he cheated – the blonde was happy to say training was over for the day. Other than the physical exhaustion, he was starting to get tired of Sai and Sasuke constantly attacking each other. Granted, it hadn't escalated to anything physical, but the hostility between them was so potent Naruto could almost cut it with a knife.

"So I guess we'll see you guys tomorrow?" He asked Kiba, wishfully.

"Actually, I have to go in and help teach tomorrow."

"What?!"

"Yeah, we're having a special lesson about animals with ninjutsu. Right, Hinata?"

"Right. Sorry, Naruto-kun, but Kiba-kun and I can't attend."

"Letting the missus speak for you now, eh?" Naruto winked.

"N-Naruto-kun…" Hinata protested.

"Don't be an asswipe, Naruto. You know she can't just abandon her class."

"I know, I know. No need to be all huffy about it, geez."

"You're the only one being huffy about it, imbecile."

"I do _not_ appreciate the name calling, dog-breath."

"Yeah, yeah. See ya later, Naruto." With a wave, team eight walked away, leaving the blonde alone with his two pissy teammates.

"So are _we_ going to dinner tonight again?" Sai spoke, giving Sasuke a pointed look. Naruto may have been considered dumb by his friends, but he was not completely oblivious to what Sai meant; 'we're going to hang out, and you aren't invited.'

Fed up with the two of them, the blonde answered huffily. "I don't think so. I have some things to do at home this evening. See ya." He stalked off, ignoring the stares from the two ninjas behind him. After how they'd acted all day, did they really expect him to just waltz into the distance to eat ramen with them? No. He'd go heat some instant noodles for himself at home, those two be damned.

But sitting home alone was not something blonde hot-headed ninjas enjoyed doing. It took him hardly any time at all to consume his noodles, and after thoroughly – for once – cleaning his mess, he was at a loss. Night was beginning to fall already, but he didn't feel tired despite the training. The blonde glanced out his window and was unsurprised to see Lee sneaking off into the distance.

Normally, Naruto let him wander away and drink alone to his heart's content, but something about this time made him want to join. Maybe it was because he'd been stuck listening to his two teammates go at it all day, or maybe it was because one of his teammates was his long lost – but never forgotten – former best friend. Either way, Naruto wanted nothing more at this moment than to join the other ninja.

Going with his feeling, he practically ran out of his flat to catch up. By the time he reached the forest area he last saw Lee disappear to, the ninja was gone. Naruto wandered aimlessly for a few moments, before stumbling upon him. The other ninja clearly heard the blonde before he saw him, because he spoke without turning around.

"Hey, Uchiha. Where were you yesterday?"

"Eh?" Was the only thing Naruto could think to say.

Lee spun around. "Naruto-kun?"

"Yeah. Who'd you think I was?"

"I, uh, thought you were Sasuke-kun." Naruto approached.

"How the hell could you confuse me with him?" He carefully avoided saying the other's name aloud.

"I just figured he'd be back tonight since he wasn't last. He must've had too much to drink the first time..."

"Wait. You and him?" He continued to successfully avoid saying the name out loud.

"He seemed troubled. I offered him a drink. We talked."

"Is he allowed to do that?"

Lee shrugged, before offering the bottle to Naruto. The blonde looked at it warily for a moment. "It won't bite, Naruto-kun. You just need to know your limits."

In the end, he took it. Lee pulled a second one out and began drinking from it.

"Bushy-brows, I can't drink all this."

"Then don't."

He took a sip. He'd had sake once before and didn't particularly enjoy it. He recalled the burning sensation, which made it easier to not gag this time. For some reason, the burn felt good in comparison to the stress he felt the entire day.

"So, busy-brow, what did you and the Uchiha prince talk about then?" He asked several drinks in. His toes felt strangely warm.

The other took another swig from his own bottle before answering. "You."

Naruto choked on his next sip. "Me?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"I dunno. He kept saying he thought you hated him."

The blonde stared hard at his bottle before finally deciding to take another drink.

"Do you?"

"Huh?"

"Do you hate him?"

He paused. "I don't know."

"That's dumb."

Naruto glared at the other ninja, but he just started blissfully off into the distance.

"Why is that dumb?" He eventually ground out, setting his drink down.

"Well, you would think you'd know your own feelings, wouldn't you?"

The blonde blinked.

"Especially when regarding so strong a feeling. Gai-sensei always used to say youth is to know one's feelings and emotions. So I think you'd know if you hated someone."

"Do you hate anyone?"

The other ninja frowned while he thought, his eyebrows shrinking from two to one. "I guess I kinda hated Tobi for what he did. Didn't change anything though. Didn't bring them back."

"Lee," Naruto used his name for the first time. "He killed your sensei. You have every right to hate him."

The other ninja looked directly at him. "That's odd for you to say, Naruto-kun."

"Huh?" The blonde was taken aback.

"You used to go on and on about saving everyone and bringing Sasuke back and gaining approval from the village and becoming Hokage. Did you forget about that?"

"Of course not."

"Then what's with the hate talk?"

"I'm just saying people can feel what they want."

"Then my feelings are that you've changed."

Naruto stared at the other ninja. Neither of them had the bottles in their hands anymore, and the happy warmth in his toes from earlier was gone.

"What are you talking about?"

"Up until Neji's death. No. Even after Neji's death, you were so positive about everything. You were going to save everyone and stop the cycle of hatred. What changed?"

The blonde looked hard at Lee, trying to think of some lie to tell him. He tried for a minute to think of some excuse that the person who'd had to witness the death of his sensei would listen to. Instead, he decided to be honest.

"Kakashi."

"What? Naruto-kun, Kakashi is alive and well –"

"I know. I'm not saying it was anyone dying. I'm saying it was Kakashi-sensei who changed me."

"I can't see him being okay with you hating anyone."

"No, he's not, necessarily. It's just…" He wasn't sure where to begin. "After the battle, I went to talk to him in the hospital. I wanted to apologize for having him help us, uh, _destroy_ his best friend.

"See I knew he used to visit their graves – his old teammates' – every day before the war began. I figured it was probably pretty hard for him to find out the person he thought was dead all these years was the guy behind the whole moon plan thing. Then, not only that, he had to actually help us kill him. I just wanted to apologize.

"But when I saw him, Kakashi said something I'll never forget. 'You can't always change people, Naruto, no matter what you do. Sometimes the best thing to do is put them out of their misery.' I asked him what he meant by that, but he didn't answer me. Instead he told me how Sakura-chan had captured Sasuke.

"Obviously I was shocked. I wasn't really expecting Sasuke to just come waltzing back to Konoha on his own, but I always thought I'd be the one to bring him back. Knowing someone else had done it hurt for some reason. But I think the worst part was hearing he was captured, not brought back. Bringing Sasuke back meant we could be friends together and go on missions together and eat ramen together. Capturing Sasuke meant he was trapped in a cell below ground, angry and full of hatred. I didn't want to see that."

The bushy-browed ninja took a drink. He stared thoughtfully at Konoha before looking at Naruto once again. "That doesn't mean you hate him, Naruto-kun."

"What?"

"Nobody blames you if you're upset Sakura-chan was the one who brought him back. But based on what you just said, I don't think you hate him."

"How do you know?"

"Do you want to see Sasuke dead?"

Naruto was taken aback. The image of Sasuke lying broken on the ground somewhere flashed in his mind, causing his stomach to constrict painfully. He shook his head. No, he certainly didn't want to see Sasuke dead.

"No."

"Then you don't hate him. Unless you truly _want_ to see someone dead, you don't hate them."

He had a point. Naruto couldn't say with confidence that he hated anyone; not even Obito who killed his friends before his eyes.

"Yeah."

"Feel better, Naruto-kun?"

"Yeah." He really did. He felt better than he had since he'd talked to Kakashi about his old friend. It felt good to know he didn't hate Sasuke, he was just angry and frustrated.

He grabbed the bottle again, hoping to feel the warmth spread to his toes again when he and Lee heard a noise behind them. They both flipped around, searching the area with their eyes, as if they'd be able to see whatever was in the trees. When the search yielded no results, they went back to gazing at Konoha and drinking.

* * *

Sasuke nearly collapsed the moment he arrived in his kitchen. He'd gone to where he and Lee had been drinking before, hoping to talk with his new friend again. But when he got there, he was shocked to see none other than Naruto sitting and drinking with Lee.

He'd realized he must've missed the beginning of the conversation, when they began discussing Kakashi's well-being. He'd been prepared to leave when he heard his name uttered by the blonde. His heart had almost jumped into his throat, and he'd crouched down, afraid he'd been seen. Instead, it turned out they were talking about him.

Not proud of his eavesdropping, Sasuke had wanted to leave. But Lee's question on whether Naruto hated him caused him to pause. He'd been happier than he'd ever admit to being when the blonde said he didn't want to see him dead, and therefore didn't hate him. He'd made some noise leaving after that, but hoped the two wouldn't notice. When they hadn't run after him demanding his head, he decided he was safe.

Sasuke let his head sink onto the table, feeling a weight lift off his shoulders. Knowing Naruto didn't hate him made his life easier. He could be forgiven by a person who was angry; anger was an emotion made to get over.

He stood up and walked toward his bed. _Tomorrow_, he decided, _I'll try harder to be a better person._ And with that happy thought in his mind, Sasuke fell to his bed and sunk into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

**AN: Wow. Longest chapter yet. I don't particularly like this one, mostly because nothing exciting happens. I also tried really hard to make Lee more IC so for the conversation between him and Nar, I changed some of the wording to sound...less sophisticated than when Sasuke talks. Let me know if you think it made them sound more natural. (I naturally talk more like Sasuke, so it felt awkward to do it this way).**

**I finished my first of three finals today, so I'm almost done! (Yay more time to write!) The chunin exam is coming up pretty soon (next chapter or 2) and I promise there will be more exciting (and actual NS) scenes once we get there. As always, review!**


	8. You Have Friends?

**Chapter 8**

The next week passed by in relative peace. In the mornings they met in the training area for individual and group practice, and in the afternoons they would sometimes get the chance to train against others. On the days they couldn't, they would go against each other in an effort to begin preparing for the third portion of the exam. After training, the three teammates would go their separate ways; Naruto to dinner, Sasuke to hang out with Lee, and Sai to gods knew where.

While Sasuke would talk, eat, and occasionally drink with Lee, he never again saw Naruto and the bushy browed ninja together. Half of him was upset about it, but the other half was thankful for the peace.

The raven had never before had a friend like Lee. After he'd berated Sasuke for abandoning him for several days, the guy's mood changed almost 180O from when they'd first encountered each other. He seemed happier, as if his talk with Naruto had also improved his mood. And even though Sasuke hadn't been friends with him long, he could still tell the other was drinking less than he did before; they went from easily polishing off two bottles of sake down to splitting one between them.

In fact, if the Uchiha were honest with himself, he'd have said he was in a better mood during that week than he had been since leaving the village. Granted, he and Naruto were on no better speaking terms than they had been since the blonde showed up at his new home, but he still felt better. And he had to say it was all because of Lee.

With the bushy-browed ninja, he finally had a friend who didn't leave his mind in a sense of disarray like Naruto. Lee didn't go out of his way to make Sasuke feel uncomfortable, like Suigetsu had. Nor did his new found friend – to be honest he just liked the sound of the word – stay silent and brood like Jugo.

No, with Lee life was simple. There was no plan to destroy the Leaf or seek revenge on his brother. Instead, Lee talked about stupid meaningless things and Sasuke listened to him, occasionally offering some small input. Mostly, though, the Uchiha preferred just listening to the bushy-brow's voice. He talked about the academy, and how it didn't fully prepare them before they became genin. He mentioned the upcoming chunin exam, along with the one they'd both been in – although he tread carefully around this topic. Sometimes Lee would even tell stories about the crazy things that had happened while Sasuke was off "gallivanting into the sunset" – which was the other ninja's more polite way of bringing up his time he'd spent being a missing nin.

It occurred to Sasuke that the bushy-browed ninja was probably using him as a replacement for Neji. After thinking about it for a bit, the raven decided he didn't mind; he didn't have a single person here he could talk to – let alone call a friend – until they started hanging around together. He hadn't had many friends while in the academy, per say, or even until joining team seven, but it had never bothered him before; he'd always been so focused on revenge. Now, without a concrete goal, he found it to be lonely. Hanging out with Lee made him feel less so.

One evening, when they were eating at Lee's house and playing Shogi – a game neither of them were particularly good at, but made spending time together feel less awkward somehow – the topic of girls came up.

"Ah, but it must be nice to see Sakura-chan again, Sasuke-kun," Lee said while trying to determine the next move he should make.

Sasuke paused. He and Lee had never really discussed the events behind his capture, and he didn't feel much like divulging the information. "We don't really…talk anymore," he said carefully.

"That's too bad. I know she had a thing for you back then." Something in Lee's voice sounded almost sad when he said that.

"Must've gotten over it," the raven shrugged before making his move.

"Yeah."

"You never dated her did you?"

"What?" The Uchiha dropped the knight he was holding, causing his pieces to scatter around on the board. Neither of them stopped to pick them up.

"Sakura-chan. Were you dating?"

"Of course not." He wasn't sure when they become close enough friends to the point of discussing each other's romantic interests, but Sasuke wasn't sure he was ok with this.

"And even if she did like me back then," the Uchiha continued. "Things have changed. I'm sure she'd be available if you're interested." _And that's the end of that._

"Huh? No I don't think so."

"What? Don't you like her?" _Isn't that why you're asking these questions?_

"Hmm. I guess I did before, but I hadn't really thought about anything like that after…" He trailed off. Sasuke shifted uncomfortably in his chair, not sure how to respond. He was saved the trouble.

"And even if I did still want to date her, she's with Naruto." Lee moved a piece while he said this.

"What?" Sasuke stared at him, but Lee didn't look up.

"At least I assume she is. I see them together all the time."

Silence.

"I guess I wouldn't be surprised if they were; they got closer after he returned from training with Jiarya."

Still, the Uchiha didn't respond.

"She actually went all the way to where he was when he was trying to track you, just to confess her feelings."

Something strange was happening in Sasuke's mind. Everything seemed fuzzy, and he was having a hard time focusing on the exact words Lee was saying.

"Of course, that was right before she ran off and apparently tried to kill you. I heard about it afterward."

He needed desperately to get out of this room.

"Sasuke?"

It took a moment for the Uchiha to realize he was standing. He looked around in a confused sense for a moment.

"I don't feel well. I'll see you later," he mumbled before stumbling over to the door and walking out, leaving a confused looking Lee in his wake.

He unconsciously made it back to the training area before he finally stopped walking. Even being out in the open, he felt as though some giant weight were resting on his chest, constricting his breathing. Lee's words buzzed in his mind. _She's with Naruto._

_It's not my business if she's seeing him or not,_ he thought angrily to himself. _I never had feelings for her anyways._ Deep in his mind a voice countered that it wasn't if _she_ was seeing someone that bothered him. No, the voice continued, sounding eerily like Itachi, it hurts knowing _he's_ seeing someone.

"Stop!" He shouted, slamming his hand into a nearby tree. He'd already had this internal discussion with himself; he wasn't gay. What should he care if Naruto dates the entire village of Konoha? It wasn't any of his concern.

The weight on his chest got heavier. Memories flashed before his eyes at the speed of light. He saw the look on Naruto's face when he jumped in to protect him from Haku, heard the rumor that Itachi was going after the blonde, felt the pain when he'd left Naruto after the battle at the Valley of the End. He sunk to the ground, willing them to stop. But they kept going. Naruto's face the first time they saw each other again. Naruto telling him he would definitely bring him back to the village. Hearing that one of them would die if they ever fought again.

_No. It never would've come to that._ He opened his eyes, forcing himself to focus on his breathing. His heart rate began to slow.

_Stop worrying about something you have no control over, _he told himself firmly. He stood up, ignoring the side of him that was protesting his lack of control. _Naruto can handle himself now, and so can you._

He needed to bring his focus back to the main issue: the chuunin exam. His freedom rested on completing the test and proving he wasn't a psycho who would murder the entire village in cold blood. With that thought in mind, he walked back to his home.

_I just need to complete this one exam. Then I can leave for good this time._

* * *

Naruto noticed how the final week leading up to their departure, Sasuke was quieter. After his night with Lee, the blonde had resolved to try and be less hostile toward his former friend. It seemed to be working, and for the week following the three of them were able to train in relative peace; even Sai was behaving himself.

But something had happened, and the blonde was dying to know. With the way things stood between them, he didn't think he could _actually_ approach Sasuke and demand to know what was eating at him, like he could've in the past. He wasn't quite sure how he knew something was wrong. By all outward appearances, the Uchiha was training much in the way he had been the week prior, but something about it was off.

He was no longer meeting Naruto's eye when they would strategize, he didn't have underhanded sarcastic comments directed towards either teammate, nor did he voice his opinon unless asked. It was the blonde's opinion that Sasuke had something terrible on his mind, and he just hoped it wasn't yet another revenge scheme. He decided, in an effort to keep the peace in the village, he'd try to do something nice.

"Hey, Uchiha," he said right after practice while the other was walking away. Sasuke turned, but didn't respond. "You wanna grab dinner with us?"

For a moment he swore an expression of some kind appeared on the other's face, but he blinked and it was gone. "What?"

"Are you deaf? We're going to Ichiraku."

"Oh."

_That's all you're going to say? 'Oh.' Gods, Sasuke. What're you scheming?_

"Do you want to come or not?" He was starting to get impatient.

"Actually I was planning on eating with Lee…" The Uchiha trailed off, probably due to the look Naruto was giving him. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You hang out with _bushy-brows_?"

"Sometimes, yeah."

"Since when?"

"Since we started preparing for the exam."

Naruto stared at him incredulously.

"Spit it out, dobe."

"You have _friends_?!"

Sasuke glared. "What's it to you, loser?"

"Nothing," the blonde grumbled, ignoring the insult.

The other turned and began to walk away. Naruto resisted the urge to call out to him, and instead watched him as he disappeared into the distance.

"So, Naruto-kun, would you like to get some dinner still?" He had completely forgotten his other teammate was still standing there.

Feeling suddenly irritated, the blonde walked back toward the town as well. "Not hungry," he mumbled as a farewell.

_Really, he is such a jerk,_ Naruto thought irritably once he was home cooking his favorite instant ramen. _He always hated other people and now he picks _Bushy-Brows_ to be his new best friend? Ugh._ Not paying attention to what he was doing, the blonde ninja managed to pour most of the boiling water all over his hand. Howling in pain, he ran to the sink and thrust his fist into the now-streaming cold water.

This was ridiculous. How could he let Uchiha fucking Sasuke, of all people, irritate him to this point? He was over it, wasn't he?

No. Naruto glared at the water falling from his faucet. He found he wasn't over it.

* * *

"You're early, Yama-sama."

"I just came to check on the preparations, Kazekage-sama."

The red haired man in question turned from the window he was gazing out of to look at the newcomer. An old woman stood before him, wearing the sigil of the Hidden Leaf village. He stared at her unblinkingly until she decided to speak again.

"The locations for all three parts of the exam are prepared?"

"As they ever will be. I assure you that it will be impenetrable from any outside forces."

"It's not the outside forces I'm concerned about."

Gaara bristled internally at this. "Are you implying something?" His voice dropped dangerously, but otherwise he displayed no symptoms of being bothered by her comment.

"Of course not. The Sand has more than proven their loyalties to the ninja alliance."

"Then what are you concerned about? That one of the ninja's being tested will decide to burst out and destroy the village?" He did nothing to disguise the mocking tone in his voice.

"I suppose that would be a concern."

"I highly doubt there is anyone taking the test that our team of jounin could not handle."

"Well, there will be a few _interesting_ additions to the test participants."

"Such as…?"

"Uchiha Sasuke."

Gaara couldn't hide his shock. "What?"

"He is participating on Uzumaki Naruto's team."

_So you _are _allowing him to participate._ "Naruto's ok with this?"

"We will be providing some members of our ANBU team to help with the security."

He noticed how she avoided answering his question, but didn't comment. "Very well. I will discuss this new change with the head of our security forces as well. Excuse me." He bowed and walked off.

As expected, his two advisors were waiting for him in the central meeting room when he arrived. Temari instantly noticed something was off in his expression.

"Gaara?"

"Shikamaru, I need you to up the security measures for the exam, if possible," he ignored his sister.

"I've mentioned it before, Kazekage-sama, but I think the measures are too excessive for a Chuunin test."

"Things have changed."

"What's going on Gaara?" He could tell his sister was irritated about being left out.

"Uchiha Sasuke will be participating."

Temari's jaw dropped. Shikamaru closed his eyes and placed his elbows on the table, folding his hands together.

"They're letting a former missing nin compete in the Chuunin exam? Is this some kind of joke? Do they still not trust us?" She exclaimed, finally.

"Ninjas must compete in teams of three," Shikamaru looked up at Gaara. "So who's team is he on?"

"Uzumaki Naruto."

The other man rubbed his temples. "Troublesome."

"The Leaf is providing some members of ANBU as help. Is it possible to up the security on our end?"

"I'll see what I can do. The second portion of the exam will be difficult; we cannot enter the area unless called."

"That's fine. Just make sure the perimeter is guarded."

Shikamaru nodded. "The problem is if the two of them decide to fight each other. The damage they could do would be nearly impossible to contain."

"Do what you can. Temari, is everything prepared?"

"Uh, yeah. I wrote up a report on the details of how the exam will be run. I included in there all the information that will be passed to the Jounin leaders as well."

Gaara sat down and pulled the stack of papers towards him. _Leave it to Naruto to make my life unnecessarily complicated._

* * *

**AN: Sorry for the delayed update. I had all but the last half of the last section done last week, but I had to pack up my apartment, move into another one, then I went to ACEN (where i bought a ton of manga along with the most adorable Itachi plushie in the world). I finally have about 4 days to relax before I start my internship. Hopefully I can finish ch. 9 and edit it in that time as well. Nothing really of value happened in this chapter, but I have the entire story planned out (and some random scenes already written) so it should all flow much easier from now on. **

**You may also have noticed the increase in the rating. I upped the rating for violence and language. I am currently undecided on whether to include any lemons or not. An M rating gives me more freedom with the fic.**

**Reviews are always appreciated! Also, thank you to all the anonymous/guest reviews! 3**


	9. To the Sand

**Chapter 9**

Naruto was practically bouncing off the walls after the last day of training. He had managed to convince Ino to take Hinata's place while she was teaching, and his team stole the bells from the others several times before he finally decided to call it quits. Rather than sitting down though, he jumped on Kiba.

"We won! Did you see how I kicked your ass? Did you see?"

"Get off me, Naruto or I swear I will set Akimaru on you."

"Aw, Kibaaaa. You're no funnnnn." The blonde pouted, but got up.

"Shut up, idiot. You know I just let you take those damn bells from me."

"Oh really, dog breath? You _let_ me take them from you six times?"

"IT WAS ONLY FIVE, YOU DIRTY CHEATER!"

"Che." The two turned around to see Sasuke and Sai standing there watching them. Naruto's eyes instantly narrowed. Leave it to that cold bastard to interrupt some perfectly good male bonding time.

"What do you want, Uchiha?" The blonde snapped. He'd given up on his resolution to be nicer to the guy after Sasuke admitted he'd been hanging around with Lee for the better part of the past three weeks. What irritated Naruto the most, however, was Sasuke's lack of response to any of his attempts to fight.

"I was wondering if we were done here. Some of us have better things to do than watch you wrestle with a puppy." _If only he'd let me beat his face in _one time _then maybe I'd stop thinking about him so much._

"Watch who you're calling a puppy!" Kiba yelled, Akimaru snarling next to him.

"Well, I suppose I'll see you tomorrow, dobe." Sasuke walked away, leaving Naruto more irritated than before if possible.

He was still grumbling when the group got to Ichiraku. "Asshole thinks he's better than everyone else just because he has some stupid eye magic no jutsu. What does bushy-brows even see in him anyways?"

He stabbed his chopsticks into his bowl angrily, not noticing the looks he was getting from his group.

"Uh, Naruto?"

"Stupid teme, being all _some of us have places to be_. I'll show YOU a place to be."

"Naruto."

He looked up at Sakura. "Huh?"

"Are you done complaining? You've barely touched your food and all the rest of us are done."

He looked around. Sure enough, he was the only one left with food in his bowl. _This is all that bastard's fault._ He scarfed down the remaining noodles as quickly as he could.

His mood improved when Sakura offered to walk him home after dinner. But as soon as they were alone, he felt – for lack of a better word – awkward.

"So…Sakura-chan…Haha."

"You don't have to do this, you know."

"What?" She'd stopped, so he had to turn around. The street light was casting a shadow over her face, and he couldn't read her expression.

"Be on his team. If it bothers you…" She trailed off, gripping her skirt in her fists.

"Sakura-chan…"

"He hurt you! He left! How could you just forgive him so easily?" He was surprised by her sudden outburst, but that was nothing in comparison to the shock he felt watching tears stream down her cheeks.

"Sakura-chan. I..." He didn't know what to say. "I can't back down. If I do, I may not have the chance to be Hokage again."

"It's just not fair." Maybe it was the way her voice was shaking. Or maybe it was because Naruto just needed to hear some words of comfort for once. Either way, he found himself closing the gap between them before he pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her.

"I can't protect you if you leave."

He laughed. "I don't need to be protected, Sakura-chan. You know that."

"I know." His eyes widened when she actually returned his embrace. "Be careful, ok?"

He smiled to himself. "I will."

She finally released him and wiped her eyes off on her sleeve. They walked the rest of the way to his apartment in companionable silence. He paused once he reached his door, wondering if this was his best chance at trying to kiss the girl he'd been into since as long as he could remember. But when he turned around, she shoved a stack of scrolls into his arms.

"What's this?"

"The first part of the test is written. I figured you could use all the help you could get." She looked away, blushing. Despite the insult, Naruto felt…touched. She turned away and began to walk off.

"Sakura…thank you." He went inside and shut the door.

* * *

Sakura stopped where she was, her eyes widening. In her mind she heard another's voice telling her the same thing before he left the village. _Thank you Sakura._

She shook the thought from her mind and continued walking. This was different; Sasuke had left Konoha to pursue revenge. Naruto was leaving it to get one step closer to becoming Hokage. And unlike Sasuke, he'd come back. He had to.

* * *

The idiot was late as usual. Sasuke sighed and tapped his foot on the ground. There was only so long everyone would wait before they just left that idiot behind. He almost breathed a sigh of relief when he felt a figure materialize behind him. Finally.

"Dobe, if you're going to be late –" He stopped.

"Hello." The white haired ninja gave one of his famous eye smiles.

"Kakashi. What are you doing here?"

"Now, now, Sasuke-kun. No need to act hostile."

Sasuke glared in response.

"As you may remember, every team of three needs a jounin representative." He pointed to himself. "And that would be me."

"Coming with us, then?"

"Of course not. I'll be on call for whenever my assistance is required. I'm just here to remind you of the deal you made."

"How could I forget with you _reminding_ me every day?"

"Excellent," Kakashi responded, ignoring the obvious jab. And with that, the white haired ninja disappeared with a poof.

"Hn." He looked away grumpily in time to see a very late figure in bright orange running towards them yelling. The idiot had arrived. He came skidding to a halt in front of the him.

"So-sorry I'm la-ate," he panted. "Alarm di-didn't go o-off."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Alarm didn't go off? More like the idiot forgot to set an alarm in the first place.

"Whatever. Let's go; they're leaving without us." He turned to walk off.

"Oh! Well thanks for waiting, I guess…" He trailed off as Sasuke walked away. The Uchiha could _feel_ the other sticking his tongue out at him. _Such a child._

Most of the trip to the Sand was uneventful. Shockingly, Naruto even managed to be silent most of the time. Sasuke witnessed Sai hanging around him for a while before finally asking what he was doing.

"Reading," Naruto replied, distracted.

"You can read?" Sasuke couldn't help himself.

"Har har. Laugh it up, Uchiha. At least _I'll_ pass the first portion."

"Dobe, did you forget the difficulty of the test last time? Even I couldn't answer any of the questions. It's not a matter of knowledge; it's how well you gather intelligence."

"I _know_ that, teme."

"Then why are you studying?"

"Sakura gave me some material that was on both the test we took and the one she did."

"Are you deaf as well as dumb?"

Naruto glared. "Shut up."

"He has a point Naruto-kun. If the first portion is intended to test your ability to spy as opposed to your knowledge it would be better to practice spying on people," Sai re-included himself into the conversation.

Despite the fact Sai was siding with him, Sasuke felt a surge of hatred towards the other ninja. Here they were having a conversation just like old times, and stupid art-boy had to interrupt.

"Well without the Sharingan we're gonna have a pretty hard time 'gathering any information'," Naruto used air quotes around the saying, "so I figured you guys wouldn't have to worry about me not passing at least." He seemed pretty proud of himself.

Sasuke, on the other hand, looked at Naruto as if he'd grown a second head.

"How stupid are you?" Sai asked.

"Watch it, dick-brain," Naruto growled threateningly.

"What exactly do you think my Sharingan does?" Sasuke finally managed.

"I dunno. Didn't Itachi's have some kind of way to freeze time or something…?"

"That was _genjutsu_, you idiot. Time didn't really freeze. What? Were you thinking I'd be able to stop time so we could walk around and get answers off everyone on the test?"

The guilty look on Naruto's face proved he had been thinking just that.

"You really are an idiot."

"Shut up!"

"Naruto-kun, why don't we just use my jutsu? I can make small insects that hold quite a bit of information in their bodies…What?" Naruto was staring at Sai like he was some kind of mutant.

"That's brilliant! Why didn't you ever mention it before?"

Sasuke ignored his irritation in Naruto calling Sai brilliant.

"I assumed we were already going to do that…" The pale ninja replied.

"Did _you_ know about this?" The blond accused, spinning toward Sasuke.

"Well, I kind of figured…"

"Why didn't you guys tell me?!"

"I didn't think we had to, Naruto-kun."

Sasuke hated the stupid way stupid Sai said stupid Naruto's stupid name.

"Clearly the idiot thought your _art_ was just for show," Sasuke smirked.

Sai gave Sasuke a look that indicated he didn't miss the jab, but Naruto looked affronted.

"I'm not an idiot!"

"Says the guy who just spent hours studying for an unpassable test."

"Sakura-chan said it would be a good idea!"

"Well that was your first mistake."

"Are you calling Sakura-chan dumb?"

"No. And will you stop with the 'chan'? She's not even here."

"I'll say what I want! What do you mean then?"

"I mean she took the exams before the war."

"So?"

"So, obviously it's going to be harder with all the teams taking it now."

"Well…you're just a bastard!"

"You really are dumb."

"Guys, as interesting as this is, I think you should stop aruguing," Sai cut in.

"Oh yeah?" Naruto spun on the other guy and appeared to challenge him, but Sai just pointed down the path.

Both Sasuke and Naruto looked to where he was pointing and saw the group off in the distance. Sometime during their conversation, they had stopped and were now behind. Without looking at each other, the three of them raced after the disappearing group.

After that incident, Naruto didn't speak to either of his teammates for the rest of the journey. They walked in an uncomfortable silence for a bit before he took out his notes again and continued to review them. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at this but remained silent. To his surprise, the third member of the team didn't comment either.

It took a few more days before they finally neared the Sand. It had been obvious by the change in scenery, but it was still several hours before they finally reached the village itself. Sasuke almost breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't a loud person, but hanging around Lee for the past few weeks had him accustomed to hearing another's voice, and the constant silence from Naruto was beginning to drive him insane.

Sasuke wasn't actually sure if he'd ever been to the Sand; during his years after leaving the Leaf he'd been so focused on revenge he never noticed unimportant things like locations. The first thing he noticed was how colorless it appeared; the whole thing looked like it was made of dirt, which would make sense, he supposed. It wasn't until they reached the central area that he saw more than that.

They entered what seemed to be a market. There were vendors selling all kinds of ninja gear, trinkets, foods, jewelry, and other things Sasuke wasn't even sure what they were. The people and the goods were covered in every color under the sun; he smirked when he saw someone wearing a similarly obnoxious orange to the one Naruto sported on a daily basis.

The group slowed through the more narrow streets in this area, some stopping to buy things or browse. Sasuke followed Naruto and Sai, who seemed intent on finding their way to the exam, though the blond's eyes continued to drift toward the stalls. Finally, after following the path for a while, the streets opened into an area in front of what appeared to be the Kazekage's house.

The red-head Sasuke remembered fighting in the previous chuunin exam stood before them. The anger was gone from his eyes, and he no longer gave off an aura of irrational hatred. The Uchiha was surprised; he never thought the guy could've mellowed out that much in his life.

As if sensing he was being thought about, Gaara glanced in their direction. He smiled and nodded his head toward them, and out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke saw Naruto return with a broad grin and full-arm wave. Something twisted in the Uchiha's gut at this. _So the dobe managed to save him like he did with the others._ He felt a strange mixture of pride and sadness at this; so far he was the only person the blond never put any real effort into saving. Seeing his track record, Sasuke was sure if Naruto had ever wanted to save him, he could've. The logical conclusion was that he chose not to.

Feeling bitter at this, the raven glared at the ground, ignoring the sound of the Kazekage being announced.

"Welcome to the Sand, Konoha ninjas. We are happy to see what a good turnout there is for the upcoming exam. There are accommodations already arranged for you for the night; the exam itself will begin tomorrow. I hope you enjoy your visit."

They all clapped politely. Sasuke was confused; wasn't the Kazekage supposed to deliver a larger speech before the exam or something? How did they even deal with other villages back when he first took the test?

He looked around to see if any of the others were as confused as he was, and was shocked to notice just how many ninjas there were around him. During the journey, he hadn't paid attention to anyone but Naruto – and sometimes Sai – so he didn't realize that Konoha alone supplied this many genins prepared to become chuunins. He knew there would be quite a few ninjas, but if one village had this many teams competing, how big was this exam going to be? There was no way all of them were going to pass. For the first time since agreeing to this deal, Sasuke started to wonder if they could breeze through this as easily as he'd thought.

Naruto, however, didn't seem to be worried at all. Instead, he appeared to have forgotten he was giving his teammates the silent treatment and started pestering them into wandering around the village with him. Sai agreed quickly, cracking another dick joke that made Sasuke simultaneously smirk and hate him.

In the end they both followed the blond around the area, listening to him talk a mile a minute about all the cool things he remembered from the last time he was in the Sand. Sasuke tuned him out and took to staring at him while he walked, observing the way the blond talked using his hands and how his hair shifted with every small movement of his head. Absent-mindedly, the Uchiha wondered what that hair would feel like between his fingers. _It's probably soft._

"Naruto," a voice broke him from his thoughts, and the three of them turned to see who spoke. Gaara was walking toward them, the crowd parting to let him through.

"Hey Gaara!" Naruto broke off mid-sentence in favor of greeting his friend. "What's up?"

"I was wondering if I could speak with you."

"Yeah, sure."

Gaara glanced slightly toward Sasuke, who narrowed his eyes in response. "Privately." _What's he playing at?_

"Uh, yeah." The blond turned to his teammates. "I guess I'll see you guys later?"

"Sure, Naruto-kun."

"Hn."

And with that, Naruto followed the Kazekage, leaving Sasuke and Sai to fend for themselves.

"What do you want to do, Sasuke-_kun_?" Sai emphasized the kun in a slightly mocking voice.

"I would rather be locked in that cell for eternity than spend time with you," Sasuke retorted, spinning on his heel.

"You just might."

Sasuke stormed away rather than grace that with a response.

* * *

"So what's up?" Naruto asked Gaara when they were finally alone in his office.

"Are you really okay with this?"

"What?" Naruto was lost.

"Your team."

"Oh." _He means Sasuke_. "Yeah, I guess."

"You guess?"

"It's not like I really have a choice, you know?"

"You're talking the 3 member team requirement." It wasn't a question.

"Yeah."

"Why not wait a year? You wouldn't have to deal with this."

"I can't…" Naruto's nerves over the test were already starting to get to him and this topic of conversation was making it worse.

"What do you mean you can't?"

"Well if I wait a year, I can't be Hokage."

"You can't be Hokage in a year…?" Gaara seemed confused.

"The elders said if I can't become a chunnin after this exam, then they're going to make Kakashi the new Hokage. So I have to pass this first and then whatever jounin stuff."

"Jounin _stuff_?" If Gaara had any eyebrows to raise, he would've been doing just that.

"Yeah. I can't become Hokage as a genin apparently. I need to be at least a jounin…" The blond was really hoping Gaara wouldn't push it.

"Interesting…" He seemed to have gotten his wish. The redhead appeared to be deep in thought, so they stood there silent for a moment.

"Is that all you wanted to talk to me about?" Naruto wanted to get out of there.

"In a way." Gaara developed a serious expression on his face. "Listen, Naruto. I can back you on this if you don't want to follow through."

"You're telling me to drop out?! I just told you –!"

"Calm down, Naruto. I'm telling you I can talk to your elders for you."

"About what?"

"You shouldn't have to be on a team with someone who put you through that much. We can lock him back up and wait a year until there's a better teammate for you."

"That's really nice of you, but I'm ok."

"I mean it Naruto."

"Why?"

He paused.

"Because you saved me back then," the redhead spoke so softly it was almost a whisper. "I owe you for that."

Naruto wasn't really sure what to say. He felt flattered, but at the same time he knew he had to do this. He needed to be Hokage.

"Thank you, Gaara. Really. But I'll be okay. I can handle this. I promise."

For a moment they started at each other, trying to figure out what the other was thinking. Finally, Gaara dropped his gaze.

"I trust you."

Naruto turned to leave.

"Just be careful."

The blond didn't stop until he made his way to where the Leaf was staying for the night. A nice woman pointed him toward a room he'd eventually be sharing with his teammates, and he entered, expecting it to be empty. To his surprise, Sasuke was staring out the window.

"Uchiha." He still refused to call him by his first name.

"Uzumaki." Sasuke didn't sound surprised to hear Naruto.

They stood in an awkward silence for a moment.

"See anything cool?" The blond finally ventured.

"Hn." _I guess that means no._

"Where's Sai?"

"I don't know." Was it him, or did Sasuke's voice sound tense when he said that?

"Oh." Naruto flopped down on the bed that was his and closed his eyes. Just because the teme was there didn't mean he couldn't think about what Gaara had said.

"What did the Kazekage want from you?" Naruto was shocked Sasuke chose to begin a conversation. He wasn't expecting it, and so he didn't know what to say. Should he lie? Tell the truth?

"Uh," he finally managed. "Nothing much. Just wanted to see how things in the village were going and all…" The lie sounded weak even in his ears. If his eyes were open, he knew he'd see Sasuke raise his eyebrow at him. As it was, he _felt_ it.

"Hn." That damn sound. It wasn't even a word. Irritated the Uchiha hadn't pushed it further, Naruto chose to ignore him. Sasuke returned the favor.

They stayed like that for a while until Sai came back. He took one look at Naruto and Sasuke before falling onto his bed. He drew for a bit until the sun dipped behind the horizon. Sasuke had long since moved to his bed. Figuring he could use some sleep before the exam, Naruto kicked off his shoes, coat and pants before pulling the covers up. Without a word, he rolled over and tried to get some sleep.

* * *

**AN:** _I am so sorry that it took forever to update this! I moved into where my internship is and did stuff nobody really cares about here. In my defense, this chapter was a bitch to write. I was writing it starting from when I updated the last one but it's a boring chapter (in my opinion). Nothing really happens except walking. It's like Lord of the Rings. UGH._

_If it makes you feel better, I actually have quite a few of the NaruSasu moments written already, along with most of the second-to-last chapter. The highest level of citrus this fic will reach is lime, because I was thinking of writing a lemon but it doesn't make sense with the plot I have planned out. The lime was pretty steamy (in comparison to the lame shit I normally write) so you guys have that to look forward to at least._

_Also, I have a good idea of what I want the jounin stuff to look like, but I'd love to hear what you guys think the "jounin test" would be. That section is still very vague in my mind right now, so I might take some of your ideas if they fit into the general scheme of what I already have planned out._

_As always, review and tell me your opinions! Reviews encourage me to write faster! :)_


	10. The Written Exam

_AN: Sorry for the late update! Just an fyi before you read the chapter: I really wanted to get this up for you guys before I went to Canada for the weekend, so I didn't edit it as extensively as normal. It still feels rough to me, and if you agree please shoot me a message and I'll edit then re-upload later._

* * *

**Chapter 10**

Sai was the only one who ate his entire breakfast the next morning. It was obvious that Naruto was a bundle of nerves, but Sasuke claimed he was used to not eating much. He was lying. After a few more moments watching the blond push his food around his plate, the Uchiha stood up. Naruto almost looked relieved and followed suit.

They made it to the Sand's ninja academy where the test was taking place, only to find it already overrun by genins. From the looks of it, the building was open, but nobody seemed sure of where to go. Sasuke vaguely remembered something similar from the first exam. _This is how I first met Lee_, he recalled. And if this one was anything like the other, there was bound to be some kind of genjutsu disguising the real exam room.

Apparently Naruto remembered as well, because as soon as they were in front of the "exam room" he turned and looked helplessly at Sasuke. The raven tried not to feel too smug about the fact he was chosen over Sai, glanced up at the sign and shook his head slightly before taking the lead. The blond fell into step behind him, shoving through the huge crowd around them.

They weaved around the building for what seemed like ages, pushing past people at every turn, before finally finding the real room. Sasuke forced open the door and they entered. It was already packed almost to capacity, despite its large size. The three of them managed to find seats nowhere near each other and sat down. Sasuke glanced up at the clock. It was a good thing they left early; there were only a few more minutes before the first portion was supposed to begin.

As soon as he thought that, the door opened and at least five more teams stumbled in breathlessly. A couple of the ninjas were able to find seats, but the remaining thirteen stood in the front of the room looking lost. None of the other participants tried to help them; the more who were eliminated now, the easier it would be in the long run. The clock struck 9, and the door opened one last time.

Several ninjas Sasuke didn't recognize entered the room. He guessed they were the proctors, based on the papers in their hands. One of the taller males spoke, while the rest moved about the room, distributing the tests.

"Welcome to the chunin exam. If you are in this room, it means you already passed the first challenge and made it to the written test. Anyone who is not in either this room or one of the other two down the hall by now, has already been eliminated."

_Two other exam rooms?_ Sasuke looked around. There had to be at least a few hundred people in this room alone. If the other two rooms were anywhere near this size, they would be pushing a thousand participants. A thunk jerked him from his thoughts and he looked down to see the tests had already made it to him. Grabbing one he passed it on.

_Holy hell this is huge. This has to be at least twice the size of the last test._ Indeed the packet he held in his hands was barely small enough for the staple that went through it. Sasuke was amazed it hadn't fallen apart yet.

"Because of the record breaking number of attendees, this year will be run a bit…differently," the proctor continued. "As I'm sure you've all noticed, the written test is quite a bit longer than it was in the past. In order to get the number of teams reduced before the second portion, a new rule is in place: anyone who does not finish the written exam in 90 minutes will be automatically eliminated. Likewise, all the exams will be graded before the second portion of the exam, and anyone who scores below a 70% will also be disqualified. And just like before, if one team member is failed, the other two are failed by association."

Suddenly, Sasuke was glad Naruto had spent all that time studying on the way here. The raven looked down toward the front. From the side view, it appeared as though the blond wasn't even surprised at the news; he must've figured something like this would happen. The Uchiha found himself wishing he'd joined Naruto in his studies; four years away from the academy had him pretty rusty on test taking.

Remembering there was a third member in their team, Sasuke looked sideways toward where Sai was sitting. He too didn't appear surprised to hear the new, stricter rules. Figures. That dick was probably born taking tests for Danzo. As if hearing his name, the artist turned and glanced at Sasuke. When he saw him looking, he smirked. Sasuke huffed and looked away. _Dick._

The proctor spoke again. "Looks like everyone has their tests. Good. There should be pencils and pens in front of you in case you didn't bring your own. No questions. No breaks. You have 90 minutes. Begin."

A rustle of papers indicated the exam had begun. Sasuke grabbed his own and flipped it to the first page. Crammed on it were 10 questions. He flipped through the rest of the test quickly to see what he was in for. Each page had 10 questions. The last 3 pages were short answer essays. In total the test contained 200 multiple choice/fill in the blank questions, 6 short answer questions, and one longer essay. In 90 minutes. _Fuck me._

He unconsciously glanced up at his blond teammate. Naruto was already hard at work, scribbling at practically lightning speed on his paper. His eyes slid sideways to Sai who was somehow calmly writing just as fast as Naruto was. He looked back down at his own paper, his stomach clenching painfully. It occurred to him that he could be the weak link in this. He hadn't studied or prepared either way; he was completely relying on Sai's ink jutsu.

As if on cue, a tiny fly splatted down on his paper, turning immediately into words.

_"Stop daydreaming, Uchiha, and get to work. If you fail this test I will kill you."_

A second fly landed.

_"The first answer is B, to get you started."_

Sasuke resisted the childish urge to glare at Sai and instead read the question. Sure enough the answer was B. Somehow he was angry about it. He was about to begin the second question when a third fly landed on his paper. This one was clearly meant for Naruto as well.

_"Remember if you have a reply to sweep the ink onto your pencil and write with it. There is enough ink to send two messages. You have a little over 2 minutes a question. Don't waste time. Good luck."_

And so Sasuke began working. Unlike the first exam, he wasn't overwhelmed with the feeling that he knew nothing. For once in his life, he was _happy_ he'd run away and trained with Orochimaru all those years; if he hadn't he wouldn't have gotten half the questions right.

By the second page, he'd used the fist ink Sai had sent him to tell them the answers to three of the questions. Well, he mostly sent it for Naruto. Who knew what the former Root member had been forced to learn?

He was halfway through the 200 "quicker" questions by the 40 minute mark; ahead of schedule, but still concerned about the essay at the end.

Sasuke was feeling pretty good about himself when he hit the true false section: questions 170-200. He breezed through the first four, snorting at number 175 for being so easy. A quick glance at the clock revealed he had about 25 minutes to finish up the exam; more time than he'd expected. He smirked at the expressions of some of the people around the room; there were considerably less than they started with – several rookies were caught obviously cheating and their teams were immediately dismissed – and of the remaining, only a select few teams looked confident. The rest were sweating in their seats.

A plop alerted Sasuke to a new message from Sai. They'd been going back and forth, revealing answers to random questions. Naruto hadn't said anything so far, and the raven began to wonder if the blond was doing okay. He shook himself and read the message below.

_"175: true."_ He snorted. _Obviously_.

A few seconds later a second plop distracted him from reading question 178.

_"You're wrong. It's false."_

The scribbly handwriting could only belong to Naruto. Before Sasuke had time to respond, another fly exploded into ink.

_"Reason?"_

Splat.

_"Shadow Clones share their knowledge with you the second they disappear."_

_ "The question didn't ask about Shadow Clones, just normal ones."_

_ "No. It said _clones_ never specified a type."_

Sasuke reread the question. He had to hand it to Naruto; the guy had a point. It took Sai another moment to respond.

_"I would normally agree with you on this one, but the likelihood the person who wrote the exam knows about Shadow Clones is minimal."_

Also true.

_"I disagree with you there. I use Shadow Clones all the time, especially during the ninja war which _everyone_ was at. If they don't know about it by now, then they are dumber than I am."_

Naruto: 2, Sai: 1. Sasuke was giving the win to the blond. He crossed out his answer and circled false, listing the Shadow Clones as his reason below it. The conversation had taken up some precious time and he was now 1 minute behind finishing the test within the limit. He continued on, ignoring the small splat sounds which indicated Naruto and Sai were still arguing about the question.

Finally, halfway through the short answers, Sasuke got fed up. He scooped up the latest ink and scribbled furiously before it turned into two flies and delivered his message.

_"We have less than 12 minutes left in this exam. Shut up and finish before we get disqualified."_

There were no more messages after that.

* * *

"Time," called the proctor, and Naruto set his pencil down, having just completed the final essay question. A scuffle behind him announced a ninja's failure to stop writing; he and his team were escorted out. The blond glanced behind him toward his two teammates. Sai flashed him a thumbs up. Sasuke just smirked.

_Figures. They probably finished ages ahead of me._

After a few more teams were kicked out for not finishing in the time limit, the proctors dismissed them. Naruto stood and stretched. He was feeling pretty decent about it. Back in the academy he'd been known for having the worst test scores, but that was because he never studied. He always believed in proving value based on actions, not words. Sakura's stories about her second chunnin exam changed his mind.

Sure, he'd remembered the point of the written portion was to cheat, but he wasn't good at stealth. So he decided to do the next best thing: study and learn the material. Lucky for him, half the stuff on the test was covered in Sakura's notes he'd studied. Everything else he'd learned from experience or guessed and hoped he was right. 70% was a high goal; they must _really_ need people to fail out before the next part.

The blond walked out the door, then stood and waited for his teammates to come through. It didn't take them long.

"I wonder how long we'll have to wait before the results," he mused, falling into step with Sai.

"I overheard them saying a day or two," the artist responded.

"Really? Seems pretty impossible to me."

"Hn."

His irritation with his former best friend hit him full force. "If you have something to say then _say_ it, Uchiha. People these days use words, you know." Naruto snapped.

Sasuke sighed behind him. "Idiot, did you see how many people there were here?"

"Hence the impossible part."

"I meant the people _hosting_ the exam."

He refused to respond.

"All they have to do is check the tests until someone misses 60 questions, then they can fail that entire team and move on."

Asshole had a point. So many teams would be eliminated that way.

Naruto's blood ran cold. _Oh gods what if I only got a 69%? What if I failed the entire team because I missed one question too many?! What if Sai was right about the clone question?_

In silence, the team walked the rest of the way to their rooms.

As much as he would've loved to hang out with Gaara, Naruto was a bundle of nerves the next day. He could barely sleep the night before, and now he could barely choke down his ramen. The blond knew his team should be training under the assumption they made it onto the next round, but Naruto didn't feel much like training with his dick obsessed friend and the cold hearted bastard. So he spent his day wandering around the Sand, not paying attention to anything around him and tripping over his feet until he gave up and returned to his room.

He was surprised to see Sasuke alone when he got there.

"Where's Sai?"

The raven shrugged. Naruto felt the same wave of irritation that seemed to envelop him every time he came in contact with the Uchiha lately.

"You know it wouldn't kill you to use real words sometimes, Uchiha." He slumped down on his bed, not expected Sasuke to respond.

"Why do you still call me that?"

Naruto glanced over at Sasuke in shock. The raven's voice had been so low, he wasn't sure the other had even spoken at all. Even now he didn't know; Sasuke wasn't looking at him.

"What?"

"Nothing."

The blond debated not answering. He really did. He sighed.

"Uchiha is your name. Why? You preferred "teme"? Or "Asshole"?" He smirked a little. Sasuke seemed to ignore him for a moment, presumably going through the same internal struggle Naruto just had.

"You used to call me Sasuke. Just Sasuke."

"We used to be friends."

Silence.

_Ouch. Ok that was harsher than I meant._ Naruto sat up.

"What I meant was we used to be on a team together and be rivals and…stuff," he finished lamely.

"I know what you meant."

_Oh, well whoop-dee-doo then ._

They were silent again for a moment.

"Does it really bother you?"

"Hm?"

"That I still call you 'Uchiha'."

Sasuke didn't answer. _Of course it doesn't bother him. He's just an arrogant asshole._

But the way the raven was sitting jarred something in Naruto. Sasuke still had a passive expression on his face, but his shoulders were slumped over slightly, and the blond could swear he saw something shiny in his eye. It took him a moment to realize he felt _bad_ for the Uchiha. He'd never thought anything about this whole ordeal would be difficult for _him_. It was a shocking realization.

"Since we're teamed up together for now, I suppose I could call you…Sasuke again." Naruto scratched the back of his head awkwardly. He grinned slightly at the bemused expression on the other's face. "Just for the exam though," he assured the raven.

A smirk settled on Sasuke's face. "Good. I wouldn't want you getting too attached afterwards."

The blond opened his mouth to retort but just then the door flew open.

"Naruto-kun!" A body slammed into his, forcing his body to fall back onto the mattress.

"Ouch! Sai! I told you to _stop_ –"

The artist ignored him. "We passed!"

"What?" _I passed?_

"All of us?" Sasuke cut in.

_Jerk._

"Even you, Sasuke-kun."

"BURN!" Naruto shoved Sai off him and sat back up, the raven rolling his eyes and ignoring their comments.

"So what now?" The blond inquired, turning back toward Sai.

"Tomorrow morning we report to the same location where the Kazekage-sama first greeted us."

_YES! I PASSED!_

"Awesome!" Naruto all but screamed. "Wake me up then!" And with that, he flipped over into his bed and fell into a much needed slumber.

* * *

**AN:** _See? It's totally a NaruSasu fic! This actually took so long, because I half considered writing some of the questions (especially the one Naruto was right about) for you guys, but then I decided against it because I didn't really want to. The second portion of the exam is already partly written, and it should take a few chapters (I think. But I also wanted to start it in this chapter and that clearly did not happen, so who knows?). If they pass they'll move onto the third part. Will they pass? Who knows! Keep reading to find out. Also, reviews do encourage me (even if you don't believe that right now) and I hope to have the next chapter out in a week or so. One last thing: I haven't killed anyone yet, but I can't guarentee any character's safety in this fic. Just to keep you on your toes. :)_


	11. The Keys to Survival

**Edit: changed the cave scene to make Naruto and Sasuke more in character (thank you Guest for pointing that out, I meant to change that before it was published and forgot). Let me know if you see anything else.**

**AN:**_ First I would like to say this chapter is up as a trial currently. I don't necessarily like the flow, but I'm sick of editing it. Whether it gets changed or not depends on what you, the readers, think. So it's extremely important that you actually review this time. The author's note at the end will have a few questions to get you started if you need help._

_Second of all, I would like to take this time to thank everyone who has reviewed/followed/faved this story. It's you guys who keep me motivated and force me to actually sit down and write as opposed to just have the story swirl around in my head._

_And finally I am going to respond to a review posted by guest Shane after the last chapter (so you are all welcome to skip this and scroll down to the dividing line if you'd like). Shane: You mentioned in your comment that you thought Sasuke appeared weak in this story. You are absolutely correct, and I'm actually surprised no one mentioned it before you did. Yes, Sasuke would seem weak in this fic compared to his canon counterpart. Why is this? Well, in this story I am having him understand and address the fact that he has emotions (especially toward Naruto). Now to us this isn't a super big deal, but to someone who has spent a vast majority of his life burying his feelings and pretending they don't exist, that isn't the case. I believe that if Sasuke were ever to admit to having feelings, he would probably freak out a little bit and not know how to handle them - as anyone who spent years denying their existance would. This story is as much a development of Sasuke's emotional strength as it is a romance between the two males. I could explain my reasoning further, but there was one more thing I want to address before I get to the story (by all means message me if I didn't answer something to your satisfaction; I won't bite). You also mentioned that you don't think Sakura could take down Sasuke unless he was injured. I would have agreed with you before one of the more recent canon manga chapters came out where Sakura proved her worth. I think she is now almost on par with Naruto and Sasuke, and if either one were to underestimate her, they would be taken out easily. She is more tactical when it comes to attacking than the two of them, and so would be able to use her new strength and what she knows of Sasuke's abilities to her advantage, however I do agree that for her to capture him she would need a large advantage which she doesn't have. That being said, the events leading up to and including Sasuke's capture will be addressed in this fic; they just haven't come up yet. Once again, I hope I answered your comments completely, but if I didn't (or if you have more questions) feel free to drop another review or message me._

_And now, without further ado, I present Fallout: Chasing Hokage Chapter 11 _The Keys to Survival.

* * *

**Chapter 11**

"Keys?" Naruto asked, scratching his head curiously. So many teams had passed the written test that they were split into several groups for the second portion of the exam. Each group was starting on a different side of the 'arena' so as to avoid bottlenecking at the entrance. According to Temari, the ninja describing the survival test to the group Team Seven was in, they were starting on the South-most edge of the area.

"Yes. Keys. Five of them. You will need a key from each form of ninjutsu: fire, earth, water, wind, and lightning. Once you have all five keys, you'll notice they fit together in a certain way, kind of like a puzzle." She held up two keys and connected their handles to demonstrate her point. "The connected keys will open the lock to the building, if you're able to find it. Each group will begin with one key, meaning only one in every five groups will be allowed to compete in the third portion of the exam. Are there any questions?"

Silence.

"Good. Then you may all now make your way to your respective jounin leaders, who will hand you your group's key."

Naruto turned and followed Sasuke and Sai. _Jounin leader? That's odd. I don't remember having one._ He ran into Sai's back when the other suddenly stopped.

"Watch where you're walking, dickless."

"Sai…" Naruto growled warningly.

"I see everything's going well here." That voice was familiar. Naruto's head peeked around Sai's.

"Kakashi-sensei!" The white-haired ninja gave Naruto one of his trademark eye smiles in response. "I didn't know you were gonna be here!"

"Well, every team competing in the Chunnin exam needs a Jounin sponsor. I was bound to show up eventually."

"How'd you get here though?"

"As much as I'd love to stand here and talk with you, Naruto, I'm afraid we don't have much time. Do you boys remember how the last Chunnin exam was run?" Kakashi looked between Naruto and Sasuke at that, clearly addressing them both. It was the Uchiha who responded first.

"Yes."

"This will be a little different. There are too many teams competing, so simply cutting the number in half wasn't enough; that's why they are doing the five key method."

"I figured as much," the raven spoke again.

"But that's not all. You will be in the canyons here, and the Sand isn't known for its water. It looks like there is one main river flowing through and only a few streams after it rains. You'll need to make getting water a priority."

"Water, got it," the blond cut in. "See ya Kakashi!" He turned to walk away before his collar was grabbed by Sai. He turned back, grumbling, but was held by a serious look on his former teacher's face.

"One last thing. And this is important, Naruto." He looked directly at the jinchurikki when he spoke. "Do not, and I mean do _not_ be caught in the slot canyons(1) when it rains. Get out, get to high ground, to a wider area. Do you understand?" The three of them nodded. Kakashi's eyes returned to their smiling state once more. "Good luck."

The next thing the blond knew, they were on their own in front of a large gated entrance leading to what appeared to be a large desert area stretching out well past what their eyes could see (2). Naruto was suddenly nervous. He felt a nudge to his side and looked over to see Sai smiling happily. "Good luck, Naruto-kun," he grinned. The blond felt a little less nervous.

Temari stood atop a large boulder, shouting down at them. "Alright last reminder: five keys. Once you get all five of them, you need to find the building. The keys open the door, and if your team gets in with the keys you pass. You have five days. Five days, five keys, door. Any questions? No? Good." She turned to the Sand ninjas below who were preparing to open the gate. "Ready?"

"Yes, Temari-sama!"

"Open the gates!"

With a creaking sound, the gates were opened. The competing ninjas stood at the base, shifting weight nervously, waiting for the signal.

"Begin!"

They all raced inside. Naruto felt himself pushed around a bit from the sheer number of people trying to get inside the arena, but he didn't let himself fall. He and his team had discussed it that morning before leaving: get inside, move straight until the crowd clears, then turn left – or west in this case – and keep moving until water is reached, or the others catch up. The blond wasn't sure, but he thought he was in front. So it was up to him to find water and hope the others could catch up to him; he'd lost them in the fray.

It took a few minutes to clear himself of the people; none of them seemed too interested in attacking him, and they instead scattered as soon as they were able. Naruto slowed his pace, willing his teammates to find him. He was in luck. Within a few seconds, a tap on his right shoulder announced Sai's presence. It took Sasuke only a few moments more before he, too, appeared. They stopped.

"Now what?" Naruto began.

"We need to find the rest of the keys, obviously." Sai responded.

"But did we even get one?!" Suddenly the blond couldn't remember Kakashi giving them their key.

"Dobe," Sasuke responded flicking his wrist so something shiny dangled from his hand. Naruto felt himself sigh in relief.

"Which one are we starting with?" Sai asked.

Sasuke didn't even glance down before he responded. "Wind." For some reason, he seemed irritated about it.

"Awesome. So we just need to get the rest. What was Kakashi going on about the canyons?"

"Slot canyons. Don't be in them when it rains." Sai answered.

"Why?"

"Because you'll drown, idiot," Sasuke was the one to speak up this time.

"Drown? How?"

"Dobe, can we please just focus on getting the other four keys before everyone else does?" This time Naruto was sure he wasn't mistaken; Sasuke was definitely irritated.

"Fine," he grumbled.

"I vote we keep moving, find a safe place to meet then split up and find the keys." Both Sasuke and Naruto stared at Sai after that.

"You think we should split up?" Naruto began slowly.

"That would mean one of us would be going against three others." Sasuke agreed.

"Not necessarily. There's only one key, so only one team member will have it. You only have to target that one teammate."

"This reeks of a bad idea."

"Aw, Sasuke-kun, are you afraid you wouldn't be able to handle the wittle genins?" Sai taunted.

The Uchiha opened his mouth, presumably to respond, when a large crash indicated the appearance of another team. Naruto turned to see three figures standing on a large boulder behind them. For some reason, they looked familiar.

"Oy, Sasuke! Never thought we'd see you here!" One of them shouted down. Naruto looked toward the Uchiha, shocked. _Who are these people? Why do they look strangely familiar? How do they know the teme?_

The three of them jumped down and got closer. There was no denying it now, Naruto _definitely_ recognized them from somewhere. But where?

"Suigetsu, fancy seeing you here." To Naruto's surprise, Sasuke's voice was calm.

The ninja with pale hair and a pale face spoke, revealing razor sharp teeth. "I thought you were in jail or some shit. How'd you manage to snake your way into the Chunnin exam, huh?" He was the same one who had spoken before.

Sasuke didn't respond. Instead, the female ninja with bright red hair hit the one named Suigetsu over his head. "Don't talk that way to Sasuke-sama!" Her voice was even more familiar to Naruto.

"Karin?" He asked tentatively, earning strange looks from everyone present. The girl in question finally noticed him.

"Naruto?" Her face broke into a smile. "You're taking the exam too? I thought you'd already passed."

He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Nah. Not yet. Hopin to this time though. Gotta pass to become Hokage…"

"Still dreaming of that, then? Good. It'll be nice to have an Uzumaki on the 'throne'." Now everyone was staring between the two of them.

"Wait, Karin, you _know_ him?" Suigetsu blurted out.

She gave him a look that clearly stated _'don't be a moron'_. "Of course I know Naruto. He's the one who saved me after he," she pointed at Sasuke, "stabbed me. Turns out we're sorta related." She gave Naruto a warm smile once more. "Last of our clan, you could say."

The pale ninja turned to their third teammate, a larger, quiet guy. "Did _you_ know this Juugo?"

Juugo shrugged. "She mentioned it before, yeah."

"And you would've known it too if you weren't always being such an ass," Karin hit Suigetsu over the head again.

"So how did you three manage to get here? Aren't you criminals too?" Sasuke seemed to have regained his composure.

"Uh, yeah…" Karin trailed off a bit.

"You're criminals?!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Well, we worked under Orochimaru for a time," Suigetsu spat the name.

"The Stone was actually pretty forgiving though, given the past they've had and ours. We were given a chance to prove ourselves, and when the exam came around they encouraged us to participate." Karin added. Naruto hadn't even noticed their headbands, but he could clearly see they were wearing the symbol of the Stone.

Sai, who had remained silent through the encounter, spoke up. "How fortunate for you that the Stone was so _forgiving_." Naruto could swear he saw Sasuke shoot Sai a warning look, before the artistic ninja continued. "However, we have four keys to find, and unless you are willing to give us yours, I'm afraid we should move on."

"Oh yeah, keys!" Suigetsu exclaimed, as if suddenly remembering about them – which he had, for all Naruto knew. "Which one do you guys have?"

"Wind," Naruto answered immediately, mentally preparing himself for a fight.

"Ah man! Tough luck, I was hoping to fight you guys. We have wind too." He displayed their key suddenly, revealing a pale bluish-silver one, exactly the same as Team Seven's. "I guess we'll have to wait for the elimination."

"Juugo," Sasuke said suddenly. "Are you…?" He trailed off as the bigger ninja nodded.

"I've been learning better control, Sasuke-sama."

Sasuke nodded sharply in response. "Good." Naruto's head whipped back and forth between them, wanting to know what they were talking about, but nobody gave him an explanation.

"I guess we'll see you at the third round then, Naruto," Karin waved at him. The three of them disappeared with a wave.

"Let's keep moving," Sai walked toward where the cliffs were looming before them. Naruto and Sasuke followed silently.

An hour or so later, Naruto was feeling awful. It was hot and dry, and he desperately needed some water. "Where is that damn river?" He grumbled as they trudged on. They were walking above where they had started, having climbed the cliffs after agreeing that it would be easier to fight someone up here rather than get stuck in the path below. Naruto had learned quickly that a slot canyon was a code word for earth-made-trap-path after seeing several teams ambushed by others, simply because there was nowhere else for them to go.

So from a tactical point of view, the top of the cliffs were smart. But from a heat point of view, they were too close to the sun and had yet to find any water or shade. But what Naruto hated the most was not the thirst or heat, but the fact that _he_ seemed to be the only one affected by it. Sai and Sasuke were moving as if they couldn't even tell the difference from before. They didn't complain once, and they didn't show any signs of slowing down. In fact, the only sign that one of them even noticed the heat at all was the line of sweat down Sai's neck and the slight pink tinge on his cheeks. Sasuke, however, was completely unaffected. Apparently he was cool and comfortable. Naruto hated him.

As if sensing Naruto's thoughts, Sasuke stopped, causing the blond to run right into his back and fall over on his butt.

"Ouch. Teme…" He growled, but was silenced by a look. "What?"

Sasuke simply pointed. Sai and Naruto both looked. _Oh _he_ could stop without tripping over anyone. Damn perv._

Another team was sitting on the ground, surrounding a small pool of water at the base of singular tree. Naruto wanted nothing more than to submerge his entire body in it and drink until his stomach ached, but Sasuke's arm moved sideways to stop him before he even moved. _It's like the bastard is reading my mind now_. Dammit though, Naruto was thirsty.

"We take their key first, and then we are going to get some water," Sasuke whispered, crouching down. Sai lowered himself to their level and listened. "Naruto, do you remember the way we stole the balls from Kiba's team by the stream in the woods?" Naruto nodded. "Go."

Sai whipped out his scroll and drew three things swiftly. At once, two lions sprung out and slunk around behind what few bushes and rocks there were to surround the team. At the same time, Sai jumped on a large eagle and flew up into the sky. Immediately, Naruto made the hand signals and eleven clones appeared beside him. _Damn, I am thirsty. I could only make eleven._ The twelve Narutos scattered and ran toward the team. By now, the other ninjas noticed something was up, and as soon as they saw several figures in orange sprinting toward them, they began to run away.

They were stopped by two ink lions snarling in their way. In vain, the pursued ninjas tried turning to the west and ended up finding the edge of the cliff: a sheer drop leading to a swift death. They turned around, visibly shaking, but still managing to get into a fighting stance. The Narutos and the lions stopped running and approached slowly. The small, brown-haired, female ninja attacked first, throwing a shurinken at one of the Naruto's causing it to disappear in a puff of smoke. This attack gave the other two ninjas a boost of confidence, and they made their moves.

The taller, dark-haired boy quickly made a few hand symbols and suddenly a piece of ground jumped up and hit one of the Naruto's in chin, causing that one to disappear. The last one had clearly attached an exploding paper to a kunai and was about to throw it when he was grabbed from behind, a sword held to his neck.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Naruto grinned at the shorter boy, who appeared about to stab Sasuke in the leg with the explosive weapon.

Sai swooped down on his eagle, before jumping off and landing between the Narutos and the ambushed team. "The key if you please."

The three younger ninjas shot each other terrified glances before the girl tossed the key on the ground before Sai's foot. An ink mouse grabbed it and ran up Sai's shoulder before dropping it in his hand. He glanced down at it and then nodded once. The Narutos, Sasuke, and Sai all disappeared in an instant, leaving the three ninjas confused, alone, and key-less.

They managed to find a cave in the wall of a wider section of the canyon, hidden from view of the dry wash below them. Sitting inside the cave, Naruto was happily chugging down water Sasuke had taken from the pool just before joining Sai and Naruto in the fight. He separated from the canteen with an 'aahh' of contentment.

"So what key did we end up getting?" He addressed Sai.

"Water, ironically enough." Naruto laughed at that. Now that they were out of the sun and the heat, he was feeling surprisingly giddy.

"Yeah? What now then?"

"I think we should try to get the remaining three as fast as we can. It'll get progressively harder as we go, and as much as I'm sure we'd all like to test our strength against these teams, it's more important that we move on to the next level and pass the test than hang around here proving we're the best."

"You know, after how easy that other team was to beat, I think we _could _just split up and find keys on our own…" The blond was starting to feel as though this exam was a piece of cake in comparison to the one years earlier.

"Actually, I think this is a good place to keep as our 'homebase' if you will. One of us should stay and guard it along with the keys."

"But whoever gets stuck here is gonna be so bored, you know."

"Let's draw straws. I read about it in a book one time," the art-style ninja looked overly excited about that.

After searching about the cave for a few minutes, they managed to find three twigs of roughly the same size. They – meaning Naruto and Sai – argued a few moments about the unfairness of one of them – Sai – holding the twigs before Sasuke pointed out that Naruto could just make a clone to hold it for them, because he wouldn't know which was smaller until after the clone disappeared. Naruto grumbled at Sasuke's advice, but made a shadow clone anyway.

The second Naruto stood nervously between the three of them, the tension in the cave nearly palpable. It was clear that none of them wanted to be stuck on guard duty, and the glares the real Naruto was shooting both his teammates would've lit them on fire if he had that ability. In a flash, three hands reached out and snatched the twigs simultaneously.

"Aha!" Naruto shouted, holding his aloft. "Beat that, Sasuke!"

The Uchiha in question sneered and displayed his. "I think I did, dobe."

In disbelief, the blond grabbed the twig in Sasuke's hand and held it next to his, comparing. There was no doubt about it; his was shorter. Sai grinned and held his up as well.

"Looks like no matter the situation, your stick is always the smallest, Naruto-kun." His smile widened. "Even Sasuke-kun has a bigger _stick_ than you do."

"Sai…" Naruto growled in warning.

Sasuke spoke up, sounding bored by the whole thing. "Let's just come up with a plan so we can go, shall we?"

Naruto glared at him, but Sai seemed to agree. "We should come up with a code word in case someone tries to disguise themselves as me or Sasuke."

"Well, I'll know if they're not the teme. All they have to do is say more than 2 words and it'll be obvious."

"We can make the code word dattebayo, since we know nobody but you will say that."

"Yeah and yours can be dick."

"Dobe," Sasuke interjected. "The point of a code word is that there's only one that everyone knows."

"Fine. I liked dattebayo anyways." He didn't feel much like arguing at the moment, too irritataed about having lost at drawing straws.

"Dattebayo it is. If we aren't back by dark –"

"You'll be back."

"But if we aren't –"

"Let's go," Sasuke interrupted. And the two of them left Naruto alone in the cave.

* * *

Sasuke growled angrily to himself. _Where are all the damn teams? Were they eliminated already?_ Here they were, less than one day in, and already he was having difficulty finding people from whom to steal keys.

Granted, he _had_ managed to find another team and single handedly take their earth key – Sasuke and Sai had taken two steps away from the cave before wordlessly deciding they wouldn't fight together if their lives depended upon it and split in two different directions – but apparently there were no others. Logically, the raven knew that couldn't be true, but right now he couldn't see how they were avoiding him so thoroughly.

He kicked a small pebble in irritation, where it clattered away from him making noises that echoed about the canyon walls. He knew he was being unnecessarily loud, but he figured if that caused some ninjas to try and ambush him, then he'd at least have a chance at finding another key. He couldn't stand the idea that Sai could show up back at the cave having found two, when Sasuke himself had yet only recovered one.

Sasuke knew he didn't have a real solid reason for hating the other ninja. Yeah, sure, he'd tried to kill him that one time. But other than that, there wasn't really anything that had caused such a sudden intense feeling of dislike. The only thing it could be was the closeness the art-style ninja had with Naruto.

Since being released from the dungeon he'd been kept in, Sasuke had been finally forced to confront emotions he'd kept hidden from himself for over three years. And he didn't like it. As much as he tried to tell himself that his feelings toward Naruto were purely brotherly, he couldn't help but notice that he didn't feel the same toward Itachi. He loved Itachi, respected Itachi – even though he hated him at one point – and even revered Itachi. He felt none of that toward Naruto, or at least not in the same way.

Time and time again, Sasuke would tell himself his feelings were different because Naruto was closer to his age, while Itachi was clearly an older brother. He almost started to believe it, until the unmistakable feelings of jealousy arose. And it was all Sai's fault. If stupid Sai weren't there mooning over the blond every second he could get, then Sasuke wouldn't have even noticed he was jealous and he could've gone on living happily – or, well, sort of happily. Instead, he felt a pang in his heart every time Naruto chose to address Sai over Sasuke or Sai called Naruto 'honey' or 'sweetheart'. He hated that. It made him feel weak. And he knew he wasn't weak. He just needed to get the damn happy blond ninja out of his head before he did something really stupid.

Sasuke kicked the rock again, but harder this time. The echo that came from it was deafening in the silence that had been there just a moment before. He glared at the ground. _See? I'm distracted from this stupid exam because of it already._

At that moment, Sasuke heard a sound that caused a shiver to run down his spine: someone let out a blood curling scream. He crouched behind a nearby bush, waiting for whatever had cause that sound to come his way; it was close.

A moan of pain drifted toward him, and suddenly Sasuke felt his blood run cold. He knew that voice. He could recognize it anywhere. A few pebbles came rolling down the path, and Sasuke peeked his head over the bush. Every nerve in his body was screaming at him that this was a trap, but he had to know. He had to be wrong.

In a stroke of bad luck a person came into view. Ignoring all his thoughts telling him he should stay put, Sasuke jerked to his feet and stared. Naruto stumbled into view, throwing needles sticking out of him from every angle. He was bleeding profusely, and it appeared as though he had a bad limp.

Stupidly, the raven stepped out from the bush and took a couple of shaky steps toward the blond. He opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out. Naruto stumbled closer to Sasuke before looking up at him.

"S..Sas..uke," he said, before collapsing on the ground unconscious.

* * *

**Foot Notes:**

_(1) A **slot canyon** is a narrow canyon formed by the wear of water rushing through rock. A slot canyon is significantly deeper than it is wide. (wikipedia)_

_(2) Landscape based on Canyonlands National Park near Moab, Utah. My main inspiration for the scenery comes from the Needles District, however there are some aspects of the Island in the Sky District as well. I highly recommend you google the park or check it out in person if you can; it's absolutely gorgeous._

**AN:**_ Hey there! Hope you don't hate me for that cliffhanger... In my defense, though, I was going to continue on to my favorite scene from the second exam, but I didn't want to have a chapter that was significantly longer than the rest so..._

_Anyways, as I said at the beginning, this chapter is currently up as a trial and will only remain as such based on **YOUR** reviews! Never left a review before? Not sure what to say to me? Here is a list of questions to get you started:_

_1. Did you like the chapter? 2. What about it did you like/dislike? 3. Did you feel as though the characters were OOC or IC? Why? 4. Did this chapter have the same tone as the rest of the fic so far? 5. Are there any grammar/spelling/canon errors that bother you?_

_Hope that helps. Drop a review and make my day! :)_


	12. Nightmares and Hallucinations

**AN:**_ Once again, before beginning I would like to respond to an anonymous review. (Sorry, it's the only way I really can). Guest who mentioned that you didn't like how I was blaming the war on Sasuke: __first of all, the opinion that sasuke is to blame for the war was that of Lee and Kiba and the ninjas of Konoha, not necessarily my opinion. You have to see it from their perspective and not the perspective of the reader, as the characters don't get the full bird's eye view: Naruto was always at risk from the Akatsuki, however it wasn't until after the 5 kage summit when Sasuke attacked that his life was in serious danger. After Danzo, Team 7 saw Sasuke with Tobi who ended up attacking the village. So in my opinion, the people of Konoha would probably see Sasuke as the cause of their problems. Now, taking into account all the information we have as the readers, my personal opinion is that Sasuke was not fully to blame, but he's not innocent either. A war would've happened without him there, but perhaps it would've happened later. He was more of a catylist and less of a cause if that makes sense. Please note that my opinions and the character's opinions may differ, so while they may currently think Sasuke is the root of all evil, I don't necessarily agree._

_And now, on with the show. Footnotes above the AN_

* * *

**Chapter 12**

Sai hadn't had any luck snatching keys from teams. He'd sent his ink animals out to scout, and they'd all come back bearing the same news: the only teams within reach were strong enough to require at least two members of Team Seven to defeat. Not wanting to resort to finding Sasuke and working together, Sai widened his search and continued.

This pattern continued for some time until Sai finally admitted defeat and decided to turn back and find Sasuke so at least they wouldn't return to Naruto empty handed. It was at this moment that he heard the blood curling scream. It wasn't coming from nearby, so he quickly and quietly moved closer to where he assumed the sound originated from.

Three ninjas, clearly teammates, were preparing for an ambush of some kind. One of them, a tall brunet, whispered to the other two, who crept away. Sai's first assumption was that they were targeting someone else, but then the first ninja transformed into an injured Naruto.

Sai was immediately on guard, thinking they wouldn't pull this farce on anyone but one of the blond's teammates, but the fake Naruto crept away from him, limping and moaning in pain. That wasn't right. And also, why would they show him their transformation? No, the only thing it could be, Sai quickly concluded, was that they were ambushing someone else. And that someone else had to be the only other member of Team Seven: Sasuke.

Silently as he could, Sai followed the false Naruto watching to see what the Uchiha would do. _These idiots won't even know what hit them,_ he smirked in his head, imagining them all being pinned with the Mangekyo…_Wait. Sasuke can't _use_ the Sharingan._ Just as he was thinking this, the subject of his thoughts stepped out from behind a bush. The Uchiha was staring at the fake Naruto as if he couldn't see him, his facial expression blank. _Come on, come on,_ Sai urged in his mind, _don't fall for it. You can't use your Sharingan but you can still tell right? There's _no way _that's the real Naruto…_

"S…Sas…uke," the fake stuttered before collapsing on the ground. Sai had to admit that if he hadn't seen the transformation, he would've been almost fooled. The voice was spot on, and the disguise was nearly flawless. _Except Naruto would never get _in_ that situation to start with._

He expected Sasuke to turn around and immediately find those ambushing him, or even laugh and cheer that the "obnoxious dobe" was finally dead. What he didn't expect was to see the Uchiha crumple to his knees and stare at the seemingly unconscious Naruto with what could be called a pained expression. Sai's heart tugged on him slightly when Sasuke's legs and arms were entrapped by bits of earth and still the raven didn't move, didn't blink. At that moment, Sai realized he didn't have to like Sasuke, but he could at least trust him a little more.

He recognized this team as one of the ones he'd spotted earlier who seemed to be at a high enough level he couldn't steal the key on his own. But, he figured, he could scare them away at the very least.

Sai's ink lions burst into the area all at once. One charged toward the still body of the fake Naruto on the ground while the remaining two lions ran into the sparce underbrush, chasing away the two teammates in hiding. The fake Naruto jumped up and transformed back into the tall brunet guy Sai had seen earlier.

"…The FUCK?!" He yelled, trying to slice the lion with his kunai. The ink separated and then reassembled as the lion charged once more. Giving up on the fight, the brunet ran off after his teammates, leaving Sasuke alone in the clearing, the earth that had been binding him down crumbling harmlessly.

Sai stepped forward as his lions disappeared and approached Sasuke. Given the raven's reaction to the situation, the artist wanted nothing more than to mock him. "You've grown so used to having your Sharingan as a crutch you can't even tell genjutsu from reality without it anymore."

Sasuke didn't respond. Instead he continued to stare blankly at the spot the fake-Naruto had just lay. Sai wasn't one who knew a lot about human emotions, but Naruto and Sakura had taught him a lot. He could tell if someone were trying to hide something, or if they were faking a smile now. But what he couldn't identify was the look on Sasuke's face. It seemed as though the Uchiha were hiding his emotions, but what the raven was feeling was beyond Sai. Something about the way Sasuke kneeled on the ground, unmoving and unblinking, jarred something in the former Root member's heart.

"You know," Sai began, despite the appearance that the Uchiha couldn't hear him. "I read Naruto's file before joining team seven." He waited for some sign that the raven was listening. After a few moments of silence where Sasuke didn't say anything, Sai continued. "It was interesting; he seemed to be an enigma to me. He was rebellious, always disregarding the rules for no apparent reason, and yet he had been given all these interesting missions. To say the least; I was intrigued." Sasuke finally blinked.

"He becomes friends so easily with others, don't you think? It's almost like people want to hate him, but can't because they're so drawn to him. And he trusts them. He trusts too easily." The raven gave no indication that he was still listening. "He was always going on about you and your bond of friendship with him. He believed he could bring you back if he could only find you." He had Sasuke's full attention now.

"I spared you back then because I wanted to see what a deep bond of friendship looked like. If I had just followed my orders, I would've killed you silently, swiftly."

"I don't need to be _spared_, thank you. I can handle myself," Sasuke replied venomously, standing up.

"Hmm. I can see that." Sai looked pointedly around the area where the other team had recently fled.

"Slight miscalculation," the other scoffed.

Sai ignored him. "I don't think you're going to kill everyone anymore. I was concerned when I saw you communicating with your former traitor friends; that's why I was so adamant we continued walking. But the reaction you had just now made me believe what Naruto had said all those years ago. I may regret it later, but I'm going to trust you now."

Sasuke looked startled at the blunt honesty from Sai. "Why?" He finally asked.

Sai chose to ignore him. "I'm going to follow them and make sure they don't find us. Were you able to get a key?"

Much to the artist's dismay, Sasuke held up a small key. "Take it back to the cave Naruto is. I'll be back later." As the Uchiha walked away, Sai began to track the other team. He shouldn't have let them out of his sight, but it worked out better this way; now Naruto and Sasuke would have time to talk.

* * *

It started raining several hours after Naruto was left in the cave alone. He assured himself that the ledge leading to the opening was up high enough from the base of the canyon so as to not let water in, but it didn't stop him from needlessly worrying. How would Sasuke and Sai get back in? Kakashi had warned them to not be caught in the canyon when it rained, and now Naruto could see why.

The water flowed quickly over the edge of the cliffs into the slots, filling them up quickly. The sounds of people screaming had reached the blond's ears the moment the rain began, and were only stopped when the water had presumably reached a height somewhere above 5 feet. Kakashi's warning now held meaning to him; getting caught down there meant no escape from drowning. Even the strongest ninja didn't have a chance against nature. (1)

So to say Naruto was surprised when Sasuke walked in, alone and unharmed, would be a gross understatement. "Where's Sai?" The blond asked warily, but his only response was the sound of metal hitting rock when something dropped from the raven's hand. He squinted at the ground. It was a key. _That can't be good._

"Sasuke, answer me," he pleaded. Sai was his friend, and he couldn't stand to lose any more than he already had.

"He's fine," Sasuke grunted before lying down, his back to Naruto.

"But what about the flooding…?"

"We weren't in the slots, and he's not stupid. He'll be back when the storm clears."

"How can you be so sure?" But Sasuke's words made sense, and Naruto's tone lost its desperate quality.

A sigh escaped the raven's lips. "Dobe, just shut up and let me sleep." Naruto knew better than to argue.

* * *

The first thing that alerted Sasuke he was dreaming was the fact he was back on the training grounds in Konoha. He knew, for a fact, that he was somewhere near the Sand, and it was pouring rain. There was no way he'd gotten back so fast.

Even so, that didn't stop him from enjoying the feeling of a slight breeze on his face. He leaned back against a tree and closed his eyes. Everything about this place felt peaceful.

A sudden shadow in the corner of his right eye alerted him to a presence. _Goddammit, this is _my _dream. Who's disturbing me?_

He opened his eyes to glare at whoever was ruining his dream. When he saw who it was, however, he stopped.

Naruto stood before him, a different look on his face than Sasuke was used to. It took him a moment to realize the blond appeared _happy_ to see him, rather than giving the poorly disguised disgusted looks he'd been getting lately. To continue the strangeness, Naruto smiled and stepped forward.

"Naruto?" Gods, his smile was breathtaking, even in his mind.

The blond said nothing, but instead stepped even closer, his shadow covering the Uchiha completely. Sasuke's heart sped up. What was going on? The other's grin grew wider as he leaned in towards the raven.

"Nar–"

A pair of lips stopped Sasuke from speaking. He felt a hand stroke his chin, before cupping his face, while the other made its way to the back of his neck, pulling him closer. Without thinking, Sasuke kissed back. He wrapped one arm around his partner's head to fist the blond's hair. With his free hand, he grabbed Naruto's bicep and tugged on him a little, bringing their bodies flush against each other. The raven was about to open his lips, make the kiss deeper, when he became suddenly aware that he wasn't kissing anything anymore.

Confused, Sasuke opened his eyes. Naruto had somehow reversed their positions and was standing near the tree, a sad look on his face. He was no longer smiling. The raven sensed something was wrong, so he looked around. There were no trees near him. There was nothing. He turned, wanting to go back toward the blond, to feel his arms around him again, their lips pressed together once more. But when he looked back, Naruto was further away than before.

_Why is he getting away from me?_ Sasuke tried to walk back to the trees, but suddenly the world slipped out from under him, and Naruto started flying backwards. A moment later, Sasuke realized the blond was not the one moving; it was him.

He tried to stop, tried to grab onto something, tried to move back to where things were good, but it was hard to grab onto nothing, and he couldn't stop himself when his legs weren't even moving in the first place. As randomly as it had started, it stopped. Sasuke wasn't sure what was going on, so he spun around…

…And found himself face to face with Itachi.

"Aniki…"

Itachi, like Naruto, didn't respond. Sasuke was gripped with the intense terror that his brother could disappear at any moment, the same way the blond had.

"Itachi," he all but begged.

At first, he was afraid the other Uchiha would just stand and gaze at him with the unreadable expression, but instead he spoke. "Sasuke. You've grown."

The feeling of tears sprung into his eyes. He shook his head; Uchihas didn't cry. Itachi gripped his shoulders, stopping him immediately. Without a word, the elder Uchiha wiped the tears off his brother's face.

"I'm sorry," the younger said, startling even himself.

"Sorry? For what?"

"A lot of things, I suppose. I'm sorry I thought you were a monster in the first place. Sorry I didn't think before I chose revenge. That I didn't hesitate in my initial decision to destroy Danzo and the Leaf. And I'm sorry I never had the chance to prove myself good again before I was captured."

Itachi chuckled. "Foolish little brother. I never wanted you to know the truth."

"I trained so hard for you all this time, and now I have nothing to prove for it." Against his will, the younger Uchiha was starting to feel depressed.

"You were never training for me, Sasuke." Itachi's voice had a strange quality to it.

"What?"

The elder Uchiha let out a harsh chuckle. "You really are a fool, aren't you?"

Sasuke glared in a similar fashion as when he was a child. "Aniki."

Still grinning, Itachi spoke again. "Why did you want to defeat me in the first place?"

"Revenge," the younger answered almost immediately.

"Well, yes. But why the rush? For a while you were content with continuing to train and approaching me when you were ready."

"You had just come to town," Sasuke began, confused. "You were threatening my friend. I needed to get stronger as fast as possible."

"To defeat me or to protect him?"

He didn't answer immediately, thinking instead on his feelings from that time.

"Both, I suppose," he said finally.

"You killed Danzo for revenge, so why the focus on Naruto?"

Sasuke started. He wasn't expecting that. "What?"

"You may not be ready to admit it to yourself, little brother, but he's more important to you than I ever was."

"Don't be ridiculous," the younger tried to laugh it off.

"Oh, I'm quite serious."

Sasuke just stared.

"You said you originally left the village for both revenge and to protect him, but you won't admit that it was more for one than the other. If I had been after anyone other than Naruto, you would've been content with training harder and harder each day, remaining in the village until you determined you were ready. You never would have sought out such a dangerous method of gaining power. Kakashi would've been able to get you started, and you know that."

"What are you saying?"

But Itachi began to fade. Sasuke felt himself panic.

"Wait! Aniki!"

"I have to go now. The rest is for you to figure out."

His heart was tugging at him painfully. "Don't make me watch you disappear again, Itachi. It's not fair."

His brother was almost gone by this point. The elder Uchiha gave a genuine smile. "Foolish little brother. Life isn't fair. If I stayed forever, you'd never grow and move on."

"Itachi!"

"I am so proud of you, Sasuke." He was gone.

The younger Uchiha's cheeks felt damp as he opened his eyes. His arm was reaching outward in front of himself, towards his brother who'd just disappeared. He lowered it and wiped his eyes.

"Sasuke?" He turned his head and spotted the outline of one of his teammates near the entrance to the cave. The rain was still pouring outside. The raven sat up, making sure no tears were streaming down his face. None were.

"Is something wrong?" The voice repeated.

"Sai still not back?" He ignored the question.

"No." The blond walked towards Sasuke and plopped down next to him. A moment later he spoke again. "Are you sure you're ok?"

"It's nothing."

"It's not nothing. I know you guys think I'm some sort of idiot, but I know what a nightmare looks like; I saw you tossing and turning."

Sasuke felt heat enter his cheeks as he remembered the first half of the dream. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Naruto shrugged. "Say what you want, I know what I saw."

"It's none of your business, dobe."

To his surprise, Naruto seemed to get irritated. "It is my business, _teme_. You're my teammate and if something's wrong it affects me too."

It was hard to argue with sound logic, so Sasuke remained silent. The blond used it as an opportunity to continue.

"You talk about wanting to be friends and teammates and…whatever, rivals or something again, and yet you sit here, not telling me anything."

Sasuke decided he needed to interrupt. "I never said I wanted any of that, dobe. Don't put words in my mouth."

Naruto was quick to retort. "You want me to call you Sasuke again. Isn't that the same thing?"

Once again, Sasuke found he couldn't argue with the blond's logic. Damn it all, when had he gotten smart?

But Naruto plowed on. "I don't get you, Sasuke. Any normal person would tell their teammates if something's affecting their performance, but _noooo_. You're Uchiha Sasuke, you do what you want."

"Shut up," Sasuke hissed. The blond had gotten under his skin in a way no one else could, and he could feel all semblance of control slip away.

"I don't know if this is yet another revenge thing for you or what, but I don't want any part of it. You've been acting off for weeks – don't glare at me like that, even Sai's noticed. But whatever it is you need to get over it. It's obviously a problem if you're having ridiculous nightmares right after falling asleep – "

Most likely, Naruto would have continued to shout stupid things at Sasuke, but at the moment it was hard to do with the raven's hand around his throat. Sasuke was livid and he didn't know why. He just found himself yelling back at the blond.

"Don't even think you know anything about me, Uzumaki! You've never had to deal with your entire family begin killed or finding out it was all some stupid plot to keep Konoha safe! You've never had to watch someone you've cared about leave you! You've never seen them die!" He was breathing hard, his eyes wild.

"Of course I have, Sasuke."(2) The blond's voice was incredibly calm compared to what it had been moments before, his expression sad. Sasuke felt incredibly guilty. He dropped his grip and walked away, willing himself to calm down.

"Why did you leave?" Naruto spoke softly, voicing the question that should've been asked years ago, but never was.

For hardly a second, Sasuke considered pretending he hadn't heard it. He considered lying back down and trying to get some dreamless sleep where Naruto and Itachi wouldn't bother him. The second passed. Sasuke stopped walking, but didn't turn.

"I left because I had to."

The anger and irritation from before returned to the blond's voice when he next spoke. "What do you mean you _had_ to? You could have stayed – "

Sasuke was having none of this. "Leave me alone Naruto; you seem to have that down to an art."

An irritated snort from behind him caused Sasuke to turn around. "You left for three years, and you expected me to just welcome you back with open arms? Are you high?"

Sasuke crossed his arms in front of his body. "I had to become stronger than Itachi –"

"And then you just _had_ to come back to destroy the village." Naruto's voice was swiftly becoming hysterical again.

"The situation changed, Naruto."

"Oh yeah? The situation changed, huh?" Instantly, Sasuke could tell Naruto was baiting him into a fight. He wouldn't let him. "What, found out your brother was a victim and decided to switch sides?"

Sasuke tried to interject. "That's none of your – "

Naruto plowed on, ignoring him. "Couldn't have bothered to find out beforehand could you?" The blond was practically shouting now. "No you had to just go and fulfill your stupid revenge. Then because _you_ were wrong you decide to take it out on everyone else –"

"Stop!" He didn't want to hear anymore.

"Why?! Can't handle the truth?!"

"This isn't your business, Naruto!"

"It isn't my business?!" The blond looked absolutely furious by this point. "You tried to kill me, Sasuke. THREE TIMES!"

"I WAS MAD AT YOU!" They were both shouting at the top of their lungs now.

"WELL THAT MAKES IT ALL BETTER THEN, DOESN'T IT?!"

"IT'S YOUR FAULT!" He was being childish, he knew. But he couldn't help it; Naruto brought it out of him.

"HOW IS _ANY_ OF THIS MY FAULT?!"

"YOU COULDN'T STOP ME!"

"What?" Naruto looked completely taken aback, his voice returned to its normal tone and volume.

"I – I uh…" Sasuke swallowed. He hadn't been expecting to reveal that. "Nevermind." Naruto looked about ready to say something more, so he decided it was time for a change of subject. "I won't let my performance waver again." He hoped the blond noticed the bite in his voice when he said that.

"Sasuke…"

"Just leave it alone." The raven didn't want to look at the blond, not when he could feel the turbulent emotions inside him. All he wanted was to get out of the cave, be done with this fucking exam, and move on with his life.

* * *

**Footnotes: **_(1) As mentioned in the last chapter, slot canyons are formed by water rushing through rock. The danger of drowning in a slot canyon in the rain is real. If you plan on hiking through one, I highly suggest you check the weather ahead of time._

_(2) He's actually had all these things happen: Naruto's parents died to protect Konoha, he had to watch Sasuke leave him, and then Neji died right in front of him. And that's just the canon. As you've already figured out by now, other people died in the war too (according to this fic). Because, let's be honest, one semi-major character dying does not constitute a war._

**AN:**_There it is! The dream sequence was actually written way back before school ended in like chapter 4 or 5, so it's been through quite a few edits. Sai's story was also written about a month ago, so it's been through a few edits before joinging chapter 12. The shouting match between Sasuke and Naruto has been written and rewritten since it merged with the dream sequence months ago, and I have to say that this edit is more IC than all the rest were. Originally, Sasuke gave in and admitted he'd left the village to protect Naruto out loud. That's so unlike Sasuke that I chose to change the whole 500 word speech to "nevermind". It seemed more realistic._

_So what'd you think? Like it? Hate it? Don't care enough to review? Haha let me know._

_And one last thing: If you guys are impatient for updates and want to see what else I have planned for this pairing, then I suggest you check out my one-shots. For SasuNaru fans: check out The Alley Out Back - college AU with a lovely makeout session. NaruSasu fans: Companion one-shots The Smartest Idiot and The Stupidest Genius detail two different sides of the same story (also college AU). Don't care either way? Sasuke is Not Gay was the one-shot that inspired Fallout. And if you've read them all and want more, check out my favorite stories, because I have a bunch of SasuNaru/NaruSasu fics under there that I'm sure the authors would love to get reviews for._


	13. Obtain the Keys Through Any Means

**Chapter 13**

Naruto was happy when Sai arrived the next morning. And it wasn't just because the rain stopped either; Sasuke had woken up not long after he had, and the cave was awkwardly silent. Of course, just because he was happy the other ninja arrived, didn't mean he wouldn't give him shit for being gone the whole night.

"Where were you?"

"Looking for keys."

"Yeah, but you said you'd be back by dark…"

"It was hard to get back when it was pouring rain, Naruto-kun." The artist grinned mischeviously. "Don't tell me you missed me."

"Of course not! I just didn't want to get eliminated from the exam because of you!"

"Whatever you tell yourself to sleep at night, dickless."

"I sleep fine!"

A small cough interrupted them. Oh. He'd forgotten about Sasuke. Naruto turned sharply toward him, not having forgotten their fight the night before. "What?" It came out harsher than he expected. Ah well; Sasuke probably deserved it.

"We should get going now if we want to find any keys left behind." And the bastard brushed past them and walked out of the cave. How was it he knew _exactly_ how to take Naruto's good mood and turn it into a bad one? The nerve!

The blond stomped out after Sasuke, ready to give him a piece of his mind. "Teme! Don't think I haven't forgotten about –" But whatever he hadn't forgotten was lost on his tongue the moment Naruto looked down.

The base of the cliff was littered with bodies. Clearly, not every team's jounin had given them a warning about the rain. Naruto hadn't seen this many still corpses since the war ended. His mouth gaped open in horror.

And that wasn't even the worst part.

Human vultures, disguised as ninjas, roamed the canyon floor pillaging what they could from their dead comrades. It took him a minute to process what he was seeing, but as soon as he did, he disappeared in an orange blur to the nearest body.

"Get away from them!" He roared, using the moment to produce several shadow clones – enough to cover each fallen ninja. The vultures scattered in no time, as did the clones.

_"Naruto,"_ Kurama spoke up.

"It's not right…" He mumbled, staring slightly to the right of the dark-haired boy he was currently guarding.

_"You've seen more terrible things than this in your life."_

"That was different!" He was speaking out loud. Sasuke and Sai probably thought he was crazy, but Naruto couldn't be brought to care.

_"It's no different, Naruto."_

_"It is!"_ He finally thought in his head. _"This…This isn't right…"_

_ "And the cold-blooded slaughter of hundreds is?"_

_ "No!"_

_ "Then what are you saying?"_

The blond looked over at the boy. His eyes were glassed over, their color faded in death. He was someone's teammate – their friend – and yet those people were trying to scavenge what they could from his corpse. A rustling drew his attention.

Sai was kneeling over a brunette girl, searching her things. Naruto flew to his side without thinking and in one swift motion threw him against the cliff wall. "What are you doing?!" He screamed at the no longer passive face of teammate.

"Searching for the lightning and fire keys." He looked confused, as if unsure why Naruto had attacked him.

"Idiot!" The blond screeched, ignoring Kurama's warning to stay calm. "**You don't steal from the dead**!" Sai's eyes widened, his mouth gaping open to match Naruto's earlier, and Naruto saw his reflection in them. He looked crazy: his face pale and his eyes livid. But he couldn't help himself. How could his own teammate do this? He drew his fist back, feeling chakara gather in his hand. He hadn't perfected rasengan without his clones yet, but it would have to do. His hand flew forward.

"Naruto."

He stopped, blinking, and turned his head to face his other teammate. Sasuke was leaning against the wall, gazing at his outburst with no emotion, arms crossed before his chest. Naruto blinked again. "…Eh?" What was he about to do…?

Kurama's voice came crashing back through his skull. _"YOU IDIOT! WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT CONTROL?! YOU COULD'VE KILLED HIM!"_

With no small effort, Naruto slammed his hands against his ears and blocked the fox out. _"Shut up, old-fox! I stopped!"_

_ "You didn't stop, you imbecile! Your _teammate_ stopped you!"_

"What were you doing?" Sasuke's voice once again returned his consciousness to the present.

"I…uhm…"

"All three of us need to complete the survival test to continue on in the exam, you know." The raven pushed himself off the wall and wandered toward the girl Sai had been standing over, before continuing. "And we need to have all five keys." He bent down toward the girl, reaching into her side-pouch.

"Stop…" Naruto called weakly.

"Why? We haven't had much luck finding the last two." He pulled a small metallic object out; a key. Sasuke stopped speaking long enough to examine the key before tossing it to the ground. He stood up and walked to the boy Naruto had been standing over. "There's no use turning our noses up at perfectly good keys." He began searching the new body.

Naruto finally found his voice. "Sasuke, stop! They're dead!"

"Which means they don't need these." He stood up, revealing a brighter blue key. Lightning. "If we don't take it, someone else will, Naruto."

"But…It's disrespectful…" His argument was losing its strength, he could feel it.

"Do you want to become Hokage?" The blond was at a loss for words. Sasuke continued on unrelentingly. "Then it doesn't matter how we get the keys, as long as we get them." Naruto couldn't argue anymore.

But he still didn't like watching the careless way Sasuke walked away from the ninja who once held the lightning key. Nor did the blond like Sai's emotionless eyes as he watched the entire exchange. After seeing what he had earlier, however, Naruto couldn't argue that others wouldn't try to raid what they could from their fallen former comrades.

_"So _that_ is what bothered you,"_ Kurama spoke again.

Naruto dropped his gaze to the ground and slowly followed his two teammates out of the maze. _"Not long ago we were all fighting together. We were all united under the same title; no countries or villages, just ninjas. Now they're taking advantage of this to win a stupid competition"_

In his mind's eye, Kurama looked contemplative._ "This isn't just a competition for you, Naruto. This is helping you achieve your dream."_

_ "That doesn't make it right…"_

_ "No. But it makes it bearable."_

_ "It still doesn't excuse everyone else."_

_ "How do you know this is just a competition to everyone else? How do you know they don't all have dreams that can only be realized after passing this test?"_

He had never thought of that. There was one problem though. _"You're saying they all want to be Kages? There are only 5 villages. Not everyone can be one, Kurama."_

_ "Idiot-Naruto. There are other dreams too. Think about your own teammates."_

And Naruto did. After a few moments of careful analysis, he found Kurama to be correct. He was trying to become Hokage, of course, but the other members of Team Seven had their reasons to pass too. Sai would never say it out loud, but he clearly wanted to fit in with the rest of the Konoha ninjas; he probably thought becoming a proper Chuunin – rather than the sort of Genin he was now – he would stop being the odd man out. And as for Sasuke…

The raven mentioned once before that he was only doing this as a parole. Naruto wasn't sure if there were a deeper reason for that, but if what he'd heard before were true, then Sasuke was probably just trying to stay out of the cell he'd been in for so long. And that was a good enough reason to do whatever it took to pass.

In fact, all three of their reasons should be good enough. Perhaps not good enough to fully excuse stealing from the dead, but at least good enough that he could bear with it and accept the consequences without regret. That thought calmed the blond considerably, and he allowed himself to fully return to reality.

* * *

The next few days were unrewarding. Team Seven found plenty of remaining teams, and had no problem defeating them and taking the keys. The problem? They couldn't find the last one they needed; fire.

Sasuke was actually starting to worry that some team had taken multiple fire keys and completed the exam with them all. If they couldn't find the last key in time, they would be disqualified, and Sasuke didn't know what would happen to him then. Would he return to the dungeon cell? Would they let him go free? He didn't want to find out.

There was also the problem of what would happen to Naruto if they didn't find the key. He would never get the chance to be Hokage. And unfortunately, Sasuke was having a hard time trying to convince himself that he didn't care. As much as he tried not to think about what Itachi had said in the dream, he couldn't prevent his thoughts from returning to the subject after the uncomfortable silence following the discovery of the lightning key continued.

He could no longer deny that the thought of protecting Naruto by leaving the village never crossed his mind all those years ago. Nor could he say the idea had since left him. He could've pretended not to notice, but Naruto asked once why he changed the formation after a confrontation with yet another team – who ended up not having the fire key either. He hadn't been aware of it, but he'd subconsciously been trying to protect the blond the whole time. Luckily he'd been able to brush it off as a split second decision mid-battle, but it was a wake-up call for him.

What once had been a vague musing before was becoming a much more serious thought; he needed to leave the Leaf village. That was why it was so important they pass the test. He didn't even need to fully pass; he just had to get Naruto into the tournament test, and his job was done. Finding the fire key was now the most important thing. Once they found it, he'd be able to leave permanently.

He didn't voice any of this to either of his teammates. He figured Sai wouldn't give two shits, and if he did, it wouldn't be about the right thing anyways. As for Naruto, the less he knew the better. The blond had a tendency of letting his emotions guide him during missions and battles, and Sasuke couldn't risk the team because Naruto wouldn't know how to handle the raven's confessions. Of course, he also didn't mention his thoughts aloud because he didn't want the others to know. He didn't want anyone to know.

"Oy, Sasuke!" A voice shocked him from his reverie. "I think Sai found something."

A small ink mouse appeared before them, and Naruto lowered a paper for the creature to disappear on.

_Yet more proof I should leave_, Sasuke thought bitterly. _I was so wrapped up in thinking about _him_ I didn't even notice Sai had gone scouting ahead._

"What does it say?" He managed.

Naruto read from the page. "Team ahead by small stream. He's waiting for us on the other side. It says he thinks we can use that one maneuver we did on Hinata during the training."

"Do they have the fire key?"

The blond shrugged as he put the paper away in his pouch. "Who knows. Doesn't hurt to try though, does it? Come on."

They ran together keeping low between the rocks. Since the flooding the first night, they'd been avoiding the narrower slots as much as possible, and had kept to the wider canyons which had some bushes and small trees. It wasn't a forest like Konoha, but between the few plants and large amounts of boulders, they were able to conceal themselves well.

Sure enough, the walls widened and Sasuke was able to hear the sound of running water. He stopped just as Naruto did, and the two of them placed themselves behind the rock directly in front of them. The blond poked his head out.

"Two of them. Girl and boy. Looks like they're preparing to camp here for the night."

_Idiots. Camping by water like this. It's a miracle they haven't been taken out already._

"So, what do you want to do? Wait for the third or go for it now?" Naruto was looking at him, waiting for him to decide. Why did he have to decide anyways?

He opened his mouth to retort, telling the blond idiot that if _he_ wanted to be Hokage then _he _should be the one to make decisions. But something caught his eye. A flash of brown hair flying toward the waiting two teammates. _Could it be –?_

He didn't think. He just moved. Anger was controlling his movements now. In a moment, Sasuke had leapt over the boulder they were behind and had his sword out in his hand. Naruto shouted toward him, but the sound was drowned out.

The ninja seemed not to notice someone was following him, but his teammates did. They let out a cry in unison, but the boy didn't turn. He was shouting for his own teammates to run from Sai who had just appeared.

The art ninja sent two of his lions racing toward the brunet, but Sasuke shot them down with a blast of lightning from his sword. This was his prey, no one else's.

Sai didn't get the message, and sent another wave toward him. This time Sasuke cut them down with his blade, landing directly in front of the ninja, facing his own teammate. "He's mine," he growled before turning.

He would pay. This guy who dared play off his one weakness before. Key or no key, he would pay. And just as he honed in on him, raising his sword laced with chidori, he saw it. This wasn't the guy. This was just some kid. A very scared kid, who was holding his hands up in surrender.

"Please," he begged. "We'll give you our keys. Just don't kill us."

It was pathetic. A part of him – the part that remembered his time with Orochimaru best – wanted to rid himself and the world of such cowardice. But a larger part – the one that noticed the appearance of blond beside him – told him to stop. The keys were enough.

"What do you have?" Sai asked, now standing to Sasuke's left. The raven turned his head, not fancying an attack from the brunet's teammates, and saw them being held down by ink bonds. He returned his attention to his prey.

"Um…just water, lightning, and fire…"

"Fire. Now." The unlucky feeling he'd had a moment before of not being able to exact revenge on _that_ guy was replaced by a luckier feeling. If this team really did have the fire key then…!

"She has it." He motioned with his head toward the female teammate. Sai disappeared from Sasuke's view. A moment later he returned.

"We have the key. Let him go."

With a huff, the Uchiha left the ninja behind. Now that the brunet was just another ninja and they had the last key, he'd lost interest.

"What now?" Naruto asked once they'd left the other team.

"We find the door these fit in and solve the puzzle."

Sasuke and Naruto exchanged a look as Sai said this. They both remembered the last exam and how other teams lay in wait just outside the finish. This would be the same.

All three of them also knew perfectly well where the building would be with the door. The canyon was almost maze like in its set up, and as one got closer to the center, the slots got narrower and the path trickier. They'd already explored above, and discovered it was nearly impossible to travel. The building would have to be reached from below.

Daylight was starting to fade, if there was a good time to go, it was now. They were so close to the end of the exam, Sasuke wasn't sure if they were on the third or fourth night anymore. They needed to get this done, and soon.

"Let's go," Naruto spoke as if reading Sasuke's mind, and the three of them sped toward the maze area.

Almost instantly, the walls around them started to narrow. They'd spent so long in the wider canyon areas, but now they had to go single file. Sai led the way, his creatures scouting ahead for them, and Sasuke took over the rear, keeping a lookout behind.

The first team who lay in waiting was easy to overcome. They were clearly this far out from the final point because they couldn't compete with those further in. Sai sent out three eagles which captured them and carried them upwards, allowing Team Seven to sneak under them.

But the next obstacle they encountered wasn't another team; the slots split in three. "Let's split up, we can cover more ground that way," Naruto voiced when no one else said anything.

"Dobe. We are not splitting up. That's a stupid decision."

"I –!"

"Sasuke-kun's right. We need to finish the exam together, and that's too difficult if we split."

"But I don't know what day we're on. The test ends at midnight after the fifth day. Has it been five days? We don't have _time_ –"

"Exactly. We're running out of time. That's why we can't split up." Sasuke pointed out.

"I'll send some scouts, they can let us know." Sai suggested.

"Too slow. By that time the test could be over. And what if all _those_ paths split?"

"Why don't you send your clones down? You can make nine, three for each, and as soon as they find a dead end or the building, they can disappear and you'll instantly have their knowledge."

Sasuke hadn't _hoped_ per say that Naruto would call him brilliant, but it would've been nice. Instead the blond wordlessly sent three clones off in each direction. The paths must not have been very long, because in hardly two minutes Naruto suddenly started moving toward the left.

"This way!" He called over his shoulder redundantly.

Sasuke would've yelled back to him not to give away their position by being overly loud except a) that would've been hypocritical and b) the topic was rendered irrelevant the moment a new team landed before them. Naruto didn't even have time to dodge before six kunais complete with exploding tags flew into him. Sasuke and Sai jumped to the side and avoided most of the explosion.

"One down, three to go…" The leader, by the looks of it, smirked at them. His grin was wicked; he had pointed teeth which perfectly matched his red eyes, only visible in the moonlight now shining down on them all.

His hands moved too fast for someone without a Sharingan to catch the signs, but then he released a jutsu toward the two darker haired ninjas. It was poison gas, or must've been. The two remaining members of Team Seven collapsed, unconscious.

"Hah! Too easy," the guy smirked to his teammates.

"Hn. Don't underestimate us."

"Huh?!" The guy looked up and saw the real Team Seven standing above him on a small ledge. "But…that's impossible! It can't be the replacement jutsu…"

Sasuke simply pointed. The ninja's gaze returned to the two he thought he'd defeated. They turned into copies of the blond before disappearing: shadow clones they'd replaced themselves with moments after choosing which path to go down.

The Uchiha raised his blade, already laced with lightning type chakara. The two members of the pointed teeth ninja's team looked ready to run, but he stared back with a challenging expression, daring Sasuke to strike. And strike he would.

Something wet landed on his shoulder. "Wow, Sasuke. That's pretty cool. I didn't know your lightning strikes could make a storm appear." The blond held his hand out, staring at the sky.

"You idiot," the raven responded, momentarily forgetting his target. "I can't make it rain."

The man he'd intended to attack changed his face to one of fear and immediately turned tail and ran. Sasuke smirked. Another drop landed on his shoulder. And then another on his head.

"Sasuke-kun…Naruto-kun…" Sai began slowly.

"Will you stop with the –kun already, Sai? I mean I've told you several times now…"

The water was beginning to fall faster. Something about this wasn't right, but Sasuke couldn't quite put a finger on it. If only he'd gotten more sleep recently…

"It's raining." Sai pointed out obviously.

"Yes, we know it's raining, perv. Thank you for pointing it out."

_Oh. Wait. Rain…!_

"Shit," Sasuke realized. He started running, but rather than in the direction the other team had fled, he ran toward where the door at the end was.

"Sasuke!" Naruto called after him.

"We need to go! Now!" Sai yelled, dragging Naruto with him after the raven.

The rain was pouring harder now, the floor of the canyon filling with water already. Sasuke felt it drip down his hair, and he was positive if he hadn't been running, he would have a hard time breathing through all the water.

"Sasuke! The keys!" Sai called from behind him. Without looking back, the Uchiha tossed the ones in his possession over his shoulder. From the lack of splash and cussing he assumed the other had caught them. It was his job to see whatever was ahead of them and find the door. Where was the damn door…?!

"There!" Hidden slightly behind a curve was a door. They raced toward it, the water now by their knees. Shit. How fast did these slots fill up?

"Sai, I hope you're done with that puzzle," Sasuke threatened as they reached the door.

"Not quite…" The artist returned, no retorts this time.

Naruto looked panicked. "What's taking you so long?!"

"Don't rush me!"

The water was getting higher.

"Shit!" Sai yelled.

_No. There has to be a limit to my bad luck. There's no way…_

"I dropped it!"

_So much for that theory._

Not thinking of anything but getting out of the cursed canyon floor, Sasuke took a deep breath and plunged below the surface, his hands feeling around for something metallic. After a minute he came up for air.

"You found it right? Right?" Naruto's eyes were begging it to be true. Sasuke didn't respond and instead returned under the water, continuing to search. If he didn't find it soon Naruto would –!

His fingers wrapped around a hard metallic object. He returned for air. They were all up to their chests now, and it was obvious the other two were having a hard time breathing. It was difficult for him to catch his breath as well. He held the key above the surface and Sai grabbed it, unceremoniously shoving it into its place in the puzzle.

Sasuke snatched the new key from Sai's hand and thrust it into the keyhole. He turned it and the door flew open, the three of them and a flood of water landing in the room. He barely had time to register anything before the distinct feeling of the summoning jutsu took over his body.

He crashed down onto something hard and heard two thunks beside him, indicating the other two had arrived as well. Sasuke looked up and managed to make out the inside of the Kazekage's main building before a half-covered face with white hair swum into view.

"Welcome back." Kakashi smiled with his one good eye. "You passed."

* * *

**AN:** _Well hey there. I bet you thought I died. I didn't. I know this is later than usual and I apologize; things here have been crazy, but I have less than a week left in my internship and I'll have plenty of time to write next week before I head back for my last year of college. (In case you're wondering, I should recieve an offer for the job in September. Whew. That's a load off my chest.)_

_In my defense though, this chapter was really hard. I'm still not happy with it (when am I ever?), and I had it about half written for the better part of three weeks before even having time to finish it (whenever I had time to sit down to write I ended up writing scenes for later chapters instead). So as usual, if you don't like something about it go ahead and whine at me until I fix it (which i will pretty quickly actually, as past experiences have taught us all)._

_And now a plea to you: I will be having a short little interlude between the end of the chunin exam and the second half of the story (flashbacks like Kakashi's Gaiden in the canon) and if you have noticed any plot holes, any questions you want answered, please ask them NOW since I'll be addressing all that in those chapters. So speak now if you are buring with curiousity about any past events I skipped over and allude to, otherwise I might unknowingly skip something._


	14. Too Many Goddammed Ninjas

_Edited 18. Sept 2013: made Naruto's confusion more apparent, fixed conversation between Sai and Sasuke._

* * *

Chapter 14

Shikamaru had been beating his head against the metaphorical wall for the better part of an hour by the time Temari walked in. "You look stressed," she said by way of greeting before plopping down next to him and glancing at the papers on the table.

"This whole thing is troublesome."

"Well, what did you expect? We have more participants than ever before. It's not gonna be some walk in the park."

He ignored her comment. "Even by cutting the number of passed teams down by a fifth, there were still too many. I was completely relying on less of them passing the second exam."

"How many more passed than you planned?"

"Five teams."

She whistled. "Wow. And we still have a full day left."

"Eight can make it into the tournament round. That's it. I was hoping for no more than sixteen for the prelims. If we hold a pre-tournament, it'll take ages. Too many goddammed ninjas."

They fell silent for a moment. A thought occurred to the wind ninja. "You know, there's a reason the Hidden Village of the Mist was called the bloody mist for so long."

Shikamaru waved a hand tiredly in response. "They pitted the Academy graduates against each other, forcing them to fight to the death. A fascinating bit of trivia from that village, but a practice they've long since abandoned."

"Exactly," she nodded in response, pigtails bobbing. "Abandoned after the Demon of the Hidden Mist killed over a hundred of his classmates before even becoming a student."

The genius seemed to catch on. "You're suggesting I have the remaining teams attempt to kill each other in a bloody free-for-all?"

"I think we can both agree that having the participants try to kill each other would be a bad idea for more reasons than one."

"Even without letting them kill one another, the final portion of the exam has always been conducted as a tournament."

"So let them be in a tournament. You said yourself only sixteen can compete in it anyways."

"There is still the issue of how someone would be eliminated."

Temari shrugged. She hadn't thought through the details; Shikamaru was the one who could be expected to come up with a solution to the problem. "I'm sure you can figure it out."

As she walked out of the room she could swear she heard a mumbled "troublesome" echo from behind her.

* * *

It took Sai less than a few hours to seek him out. Sasuke would've thought the art ninja would've come sooner; he'd held up his end of the deal, after all.

"Managed to make it four days in the wild without killing either of us, I see."

If it weren't for the fact he was a complete asshole, Sasuke would've almost appreciated his straightforwardness.

"Hn. I helped you guys make it to the third test. The rest of the exam is on him."

The strange close-eyed smile appeared on the other's face. "And what do you plan to do now, Sasuke-kun? Leave?"

"Somehow I doubt that's what you have in mind."

"I can't have you leaving just yet." The damn smile was still there. "The exam isn't over, after all."

"The last part is a tournament. There's no need for me to stay here."

Sai shrugged. "Who knows what would happen if a team member left before the end of the exam? Better to not risk it."

"So I stay. Then what?"

If it were even possible, the grin grew. "You tell me Sasuke-kun."

He would leave. He couldn't stay. Naruto was doing something to his head, and the only way to fix it was to get as far from the blond as possible. "The village will keep its promise?"

"You'll be free."

Uchiha's don't breathe sighs of relief. "Then I will leave."

The grin slid off Sai's face, leaving it devoid of emotion. "Forever?"

"Of course." Although why he was having this conversation with Sai of all people was beyond him.

"So why return at all?"

Images of Itachi's old clothes swum before his eyes. "I have a few things I need to get first."

Sai nodded, the same empty expression on his face. "See the exam through to the end and you'll get your wish."

But as Sai turned to walk away, Sasuke found himself wondering what it was exactly he wished for in the first place.

* * *

They'd finished the survival portion on day four of five, giving them over 24 hours of rest before the third test began. Naruto spent most of that time catching up on some much needed sleep. A few hours before the teams were expected, he decided to go explore around the village some more. After all, one of his good friends was Kage here.

As if by some strange coincidence, he ran into that friend almost as soon as he left his room. "Gaara?" He called hesitantly after the departing head of red hair. It could've been someone else…

"Naruto. Hello." The man turned, and to his great relief, it was Gaara. A small smile graced his features.

"What's up? You headed somewhere?" The blond jogged to catch up, and soon they were walking side by side.

"Not particularly. I was planning to speak with my sister and Shikamaru about the exam."

"Oh yeah, Shika works for you now, doesn't he? I forgot about that."

"He actually planned the exam itself."

"Really?" Naruto thought about this for a moment. "Yeah that makes sense. The written part felt like something a genius would write." The smile from earlier reappeared. The blond found himself grinning in response; it was nice to see Gaara so happy. "How is he, by the way?"

The smile faded away, replaced by a poorly disguised concerned look. "Better than he was when he first arrived."

Naruto nodded. It was common knowledge that Shikamaru hadn't taken Chouji's death well. In fact, he'd broken down in the middle of battle and had to be taken off the field. Luckily, the war was all but won at that point, and he was no longer needed. Still, it had continued to affect him even after the war ended. Gaara had agreed to take Shikamaru in when the genius still showed no signs of improvement later, in the hopes a change of scenery would help him snap out of the depression he was sinking into.

"Not fully recovered, though?"

"I'm not sure he can ever recover from that. It helps when he has something to do, something to occupy his time."

They stopped in front of a door. "Naruto, I'm afraid you can't enter. It wouldn't appear fair if a competitor spoke with the exam creator."

"Oh. Of course. Tell him I say hi then!"

A slight nod was all he got before the redhead disappeared.

The conversation with Gaara consumed his thought as he walked back to meet his teammates. Chouji's death wasn't easy on anyone, but it had to have been worse for Shikamaru. Watching his best friend die was _not_ something Naruto ever wanted to experience. After all, he'd just gotten him back.

Wait.

The thought struck the blond so hard, he stopped walking. _Just gotten him back?_ If that were the case, then that would mean he still considered Sasuke his best friend. _But isn't he? He _was_ the first to acknowledge you after all._

That was true. Then he left.

_But he's back now. _It felt like two parts of him were battling internally; one supporting his friendship with the raven, the other opposed. A few days ago he would've never considered thinking of Sasuke as his friend again. _But that was before he saved my life in the arena._

_He never saved my life._

_Didn't he though? If it weren't for his quick thinking in the slot, we would've all been dead._

That was also true. If it weren't for Sasuke, they never would've made it through the canyon alive. He was the one who came up with the idea of having the clones search the different directions for the door, he was the one who wanted to trick the team into thinking they were dead so they could use the high ground as an advantage, he was the one who remembered the problem with the rain…

He started walking again, his mind still racing. _He was just doing those things because of his parole._

_ Not necessarily. He could've let you fail and claim there was nothing he could've done._  
When he reached the front of the gym building, he had to shove all those thoughts to the back of his mind. His teammates were already there, waiting for him. He'd left early but still made them wait after getting so lost in his thoughts.

"Naruto-kun! How kind of you to join us." Sai was grinning at him in that odd way he tended to do, and he bit down the 'don't call me kun' retort, instead choosing to glance at his other teammate. Sasuke, as usual, wasn't speaking, and didn't seem to want to look at him either.

"I'm not late."

"Not for the test. You are, however, several minutes past our intended meeting time." Leave it to Sai to be all precise. He could really be irritating at times.

"Whatever. Let's just go."

Inside, there was an overwhelming number of people. Some of the teams looked as though they'd had at least as much time as team seven, if not more, to recover from the survival test, while others had the appearance of just falling through the door.

"Eighteen," a voice gasped beside him. Naruto was almost sure he'd imagined it; Sasuke never spoke.

"What?"

"There are fifty-four people here," Sai answered instead, not seeming to have noticed Sasuke's comment.

"What does that mean?"

The art ninja turned to him. "The third test of the Chuunin exam has always been designed to have a maximum of sixteen people, or four teams, make it to this point. There are eighteen teams in this room."

"So what's gonna happen now?"

But before Sai could answer a hush fell over the crowd, and they turned to see Temari standing on a small podium. Naruto figured she would explain.

"Congratulations on completing the survival test of this year's Chuunin exam." Her eyes scanned the room, never resting on one spot for long. "In the past, only those participating in the final tournament have been eligible for promotion from the judges. With a record breaking number of qualifiers this year, we are opening it up to the preliminaries as well." A whisper raced through the crowd, and Naruto turned on habit to talk to Sasuke. The other ninja remained expressionless, so the blond turned to the front again, irrationally angry.

"Traditionally, the preliminaries have been open to everyone completing the second test. Not this time." Another round of whispers. Temari raised her hand for silence. "This time, there will be a qualification round. In other words: you must now qualify for the right to compete in the preliminaries." At this, one of the proctors appeared at her side, handing her a long piece of cloth.

She held it up for everyone to see; it was a ninja headband, the kanji for 'Chuunin' engraved in the metal. "The metal on this headband can be removed, but not without a certain amount of effort." She ripped the metal off the headband. "If yours is removed, it will activate the jutsu on the cloth, summoning you outside this building, and disqualifying you from finishing the exam. Your goal is to protect your headband, and remove everyone else's until there are sixteen of you remaining. When you hear this whistle, the test is over." She raised a whistle to her lips and let out three shrill puffs. Naruto, as well as many others, threw their hands over their ears at the sound.

The proctors began handing out headbands. Naruto took his wordlessly, replacing his own headband with it. He wasn't entirely sure what was going on. He gathered there was _something_ important about the headbands. What had she said about removing them again? When he looked up again, she was staring straight at him. "Good luck." Temari and the proctors jumped as one, disappearing onto the platforms above.

There was a brief moment of confusion, as all the ninjas - Naruto included - looked around, unsure if they could start or not. Then mass chaos broke out.

A mousy looking girl ran at him, before Sai jumped in front and slashed at her forehead. Naruto felt a tugging on his right arm and looked over to see Sasuke staring at him intensely. "Move," the raven growled when Naruto did nothing. That shocked him out of his trance.

He raced after Sasuke, not sure where they were going or what they were trying to do. A few people tried to get to them, only to be flung aside by the Uchiha. And through it all, Sasuke managed to keep a tight grip around Naruto's wrist.

That is, until a larger ninja tackled him. The blond felt his body hit concrete hard and was winded for a moment, until he saw a hand dart toward his head. _No!_ A desperate voice in his mind shouted out, and he slashed upward with a clumsy, half formed rasengan into the other's face. The ninja fell over from the force of the blow, the metal on his headband flying off. A moment later his body disappeared.

Naruto was wrenched upwards again, only to be forced down again when a shurinken flew over his head. Then he was running, running after Sasuke. It didn't take him long to figure out what they were doing; Sasuke was keeping him moving, because then it was harder for others to target them. Granted, a few still got close, but they were able to handle one or two at a time a lot better than all fifty-four at once. Sai caught up to them after a bit.

"Over half have been eliminated already. This shouldn't take too much longer. How are you doing, Naruto-kun?"

He didn't have time to reply, as several kunai laced with exploding tags flew toward them. The three of them split in different directions before they blew up. A hand wrapped itself around his neck from behind, another grabbing at his headband. He flipped himself around with such speed it threw his attacker off him, and before he could even check to see what they looked like, he'd sunk his nails into the cloth around the metal on the headband and ripped it off their head. They were gone in a matter of seconds.

A few more quick attacks occurred one after another, and he warded them all off, eliminating them in the process. He'd lost track of his teammates, though, and had no idea how many others were left…

The whistle sounded shrilly, the moment Naruto watched his latest would-be attacker disappear from the room. Wearily, he stood up, looking around. Sure enough there were fifteen others, and he even recognized a few. Sasuke was there, and so was Sai. But there were others he knew too: Konohamaru and one of his teammates, Karin, Juugo, and Suigetsu.

Temari was back, saying something about the preliminaries starting tomorrow. She excused them all by telling them to hand their headbands to one of the proctors. The next thing he knew, he was being ushered out the door, his original headband back on his head. Unsure what to do next, he stood there waiting for his team, and when they arrived he was staring at the sky, blinking at the sun in confusion.

* * *

**AN: **_Well hey there. I know, I know. I'm late. It's more of a constant than a variable at this point, really. I can tell you right now not to expect quick updates this semester; I just started senior design, so I can't guarantee I'll have a lot of free time to write. I can also assure you I won't be writing anymore of the shipless psychological one-shots; the lack of interest or feedback on my last one was proof no one is interested. (hinhintreadandreviewhinthint)._

_Ok so about this chapter. Action is difficult to write. And this story is gonna get really actionful really fast. I wanted this particular chapter's action scene to feel rushed and confusing. Why? Because you were in Naruto's perspective and that's what the free-for-all felt like to him. Like it? Hate it? Let me know._

_We are getting very close to the end of part 1. Exciting, yes? Reviews are always appreciated and squealed over. :)_


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